KOTA KINABALU: Sabah assemblymen have urged the state government to pay serious attention to the effects of the targeted diesel subsidy.
They say that although the diesel subsidy is maintained for Sabah and Sarawak, the rationalisation exercise in the peninsula would trigger increases in the cost of goods there, eventually spilling over to the Bornean states.
According to nominated assemblyman Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee, economists agreed that the policy in the peninsula would affect the prices of goods in Sabah.
He said this will be felt by end consumers in some two or three months.
“This is without taking into account the surcharge for containers kept at the Sapangar Bay Container Port near here,” he told the state assembly during the question-and-answer session on Wednesday (July 10).
He said the problem for Sabah was that it imported more goods from the peninsula than it exported there.
“The containers are full when they come to Sabah but empty or only half-full when they go back.
“This is what will cause the high price of goods including controlled items which will have a logistical and chain reaction,” Yong said.
He was responding to a reply given by state Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Assistant Minister Datuk Flovia Ng on steps being taken by the state to ensure the prices of goods will not go up as a result of the targeted diesel subsidy in Peninsular Malaysia.
Yong said the state government needed to look into the situation immediately.
He also asked if it was intending to undertake import substitution.
“This means cutting down our imports from the peninsula by increasing food production and other items in Sabah,” he said.
Yong said he agreed with the concerns raised earlier by Datuk Darell Leiking (Moyog-Parti Warisan) on the same issue.
Leiking said although the state had been spared the targeted subsidy, Sabahans would feel the pinch due to the surcharges imposed at the port from this month.
“The port authorities will be charging more for shipments that come in and this cost will be passed along (to consumers).
Leiking said it was vital for port authorities to resolve the surcharge issue before its effects were felt by the end-consumer.
He subsequently asked the government about its plans to expedite the offloading of goods delivered to Sabah so that costs would be under control.
Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk James Ratib said, however, that ports were not under the ministry’s control.
He said controlled items like diesel, cooking oil and sugar, among others, were monitored by the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry.
“If there are price hikes for these items, we will surely take action but... for other goods, (controlled items) are not under our purview,” he said.
