SEREMBAN: The Negri Sembilan branch of the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry advises traders not to reap excessive profits or impose excessively high prices that burden consumers.
“We will conduct continuous monitoring, especially at all Ramadan bazaars, including sales premises, to ensure that the prices of goods sold comply with the established requirements and regulations to prevent any elements of price manipulation from occurring,” said its chief enforcement officer, Faizah Othman.
“If there are complaints about traders charging excessively high prices, a notice will be issued to them to obtain preliminary information before further inspection and analysis are conducted, including assessing the profit margins obtained to determine whether price gouging has occurred or not,” she said to the media that included Bernama after surveying the ministry’s Ops Pantau at the Ramadan bazaar in Seremban 2 yesterday.
She said that the determination of price gouging is based on a specific formula, and the act of taking unreasonable profits is an offence under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
Faizah said that throughout the Ops Pantau operation conducted from Feb 19 to March 1, a total of 345 premises were inspected, and 14 premises owners were found to have committed offences under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, with fines totalling RM1,400.
“Among the detected offences are not displaying price tags, selling controlled price items above the maximum price, possessing goods without a licence, and using or possessing unverified weighing or measuring instruments,” she added.
