No ‘silver bullet’ to check rising prices, says Jacob George
(Bernama) – There is no ‘silver bullet’ to solve the problem of escalating prices of good, said Selangor Consumer Movement chairman Datuk Dr Jacob George.
He said the only answer was for all quarters to cooperate on this to ensure the people’s standard of living was not drastically affected.
“When prices of essential goods go up, so does the cost of living. However, the people should not be griping about this as there are many ways to reduce daily expenditure.
“When shopping or going to eateries, consumers must be in control. In other words just boycott shops that charge too much or do not follow prices set by the government for controlled items,” he said when asked by Bernama for his comments on the issue (rising prices of goods).
Meanwhile, Azizan Ariffin, the director of the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Office in Selangor, said prices of essential goods were still under control in the state and continuous monitoring was done by his department to prevent profiteering.
In Johor Baharu, checks by Bernama at a wet market in Taman Universiti found there were still traders who did not put up pink price tags for price controlled items like imported cabbages.
When asked, the common refrain was that they “forgot”.
However, according a shopper, Nor Azah Aziz, 45, prices of fish like cencaru dropped as the morning wore on.
She said the fish was priced at RM12 a kg when the market opened but the price fell to RM9.50 a couple of hours later.
In Kuantan, Bernama found more and more students of higher learning are resorting to taking up part time jobs to cope with the rising cost of living while workers, both in the private and public sector, are adopting various cost saving measures for the same.
Norkhairi Sulaiman, 20, a college student said she was earning RM30 a day working part-time at a shop selling fried chicken in the city.
Private sector employee, Abdul Razak Raaf, 40, said he had started to bring meals from home to tide over costs.
Civil servant Fadheelah Abdul Manaf, 35, said she now surfed the http://www.1pengguna.com to find out where she could get the best prices for her daily purchases for her family.
In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Office director Severinus Tukah said his men detected 257 cases of profiteering since the Ops Harga 2.0 operation to check on this was launched in conjunction with the Chinese New Year festive season.
He said their checks resulted in the seizure of goods worth RM13,965 throughout the state.
In Kota Baharu, Kelantan Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Office director Sharuddin Jali said his office had conducted more than 10,000 checks which resulted in the seizure of goods worth RM21,755 due to traders flouting regulations.
