KOTA KINABALU: The ceiling price for five-kilogramme (kg) bottled cooking oil has been capped at RM34.70 for Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan effective Aug 8, similar to Peninsular Malaysia.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi (pic) said the mechanism to determine the ceiling price was based on the simulated sales price of pure cooking oil at retail level, taking into consideration current developments of crude palm oil at global markets.
"However, the setting of the ceiling price also considered several contingency costs, including logistics, as well as situations faced by some retailers to exhaust their supply of pure cooking oil bought at old prices," he said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug 2).
Nanta said the setting of the monthly ceiling price for unsubsidised cooking oil is based on the previous month’s average global price of a metric ton of crude palm oil (CPO) was decided at the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation meeting on Monday (Aug 1).
"The average monthly CPO price was determined by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry on the 1st of every month followed by the announcement of the ceiling price of bottled cooking oil for the month, effective 8th till 7th of the following month," he said.
The taskforce chairman, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, had announced on Monday that the bottled cooking oil would be sold at RM34.70 this month effective Aug 8 and the price would only be for Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Nanta said the ban on unsubsidised pure cooking oil in all forms of polibags was gazetted on Monday to avoid confusion among consumers and exporters and to improve effectiveness of monitoring to reduce leakages. - Bernama
