THE monthly quota of 60,000 tonnes of subsidised packet cooking oil is sufficient to meet the needs of households and the micro-industry sector, says Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Fuziah Salleh.
The current quota for eligible recipients is enough based on identified consumption patterns, she added.
She said the ministry has suspended 16 companies and revoked quotas from 30 others in 2024 for misusing their allocated supply.
“The ministry will not compromise on enforcement,” she told Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah).
Initially introduced in 2007 to support households, the subsidised cooking oil scheme was extended to micro-industries in July 2022. According to 2022 data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the country had 7.9 million households, each requiring an average of 4.8kg of cooking oil per month. For the bottom 80% of households, this amounts to 30.3 metric tonnes per month.
In 2023, the government found that micro-businesses, such as street vendors selling snacks like keropok lekor and nasi lemak, required 21.2 million metric tonnes. The total allocation of 60,000 metric tonnes was deemed sufficient for 80% of households.
To prevent abuse, Fuziah said that purchases of subsidised cooking oil are limited to three packets per transaction, and export is strictly prohibited.
However, she clarified that micro-businesses do not include restaurants – which fall under the “small business” category.
She added that ministry enforcement teams are inspecting restaurants to ensure they do not misuse subsidised cooking oil.
Meanwhile, she said the government has no plans to replace the subsidised cooking oil packets with cash payments for citizens through MyKad at this time.
She added that her ministry is strengthening the Cooking Oil Price Stabilisation Scheme to ensure the supply reaches eligible citizens.
The ministry is also developing a pilot project to extend the scheme’s tracking to the consumer level, unlike the previous system which only tracked the supply from refineries to retailers, said the deputy minister.
