No more cheap sugar, flour for Thais and S'poreans

The Malaysia cabinet may put the brakes today on Singaporeans and Thais who have been taking home controlled food items like sugar, flour and chicken. It is expected to call a halt to the decades-old practice by people from both countries where the items are more expensive.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal said he would table the matter at the meeting as a measure aimed at preventing a shortage of controlled items in the country. It will involve all 21 price-controlled food items.

The plan will involve strict checks at all exit points to ensure that foreigners do not take the items out of the country. Shafie said the government had spent RM60 billion over the past 10 years on subsidies for cooking gas and liquefied natural gas for vehicles. He added that RM635 million a year was spent on subsidies to control the price of palm oil-based cooking oil.

These subsidies are for Malaysians to keep the prices of food items down & were never meant for Thais or Singaporeans who come in, buy controlled items and return to their countries.

The plan comes on the heels of a recent nationwide cooking oil shortage which has seen palm-oil based oils disappear from store shelves and the government imposing a limit as to how much Malaysian consumers can buy in one go. The country was hit by a shortage of sugar in 2006 and general purpose flour last year.

Singaporeans routinely make day trips to Johor Baru to buy carloads of groceries, including controlled items. Thai traders are known to enter Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis to stock up on cooking oil, sugar and flour to sell at home.

Currently, only palm oil-based cooking oil is being barred from being taken out of the country. The ministry's operations against hoarders of cooking oil have seen 22,394.5kg of cooking oil being seized in six cases each in Perlis, Penang and Kelantan worth RM58,009.

Along with action against those who hoard cooking oil, the ministry has flooded the market with 16,044 tonnes of oil. It has instructed mills to increase production of general purpose flour and pumped in 30,000 tonnes of the items throughout the country.