Act on ‘all-time’ high prices of chicken and eggs, says Najib

 

The price of chicken is currently at RM9.90 to RM10.30 per kg in various parts of the country.

PETALING JAYA: The prices of chicken and eggs have reached an all-time high and the government needs to devise new strategies to resolve this problem, says Najib Razak.

The former prime minister said he had repeatedly warned the government that using the Price Control Act to manage prices and importing poultry products was obsolete and needed a revamp.

“I have been raising these issues repeatedly since April to get them resolved quickly but they did not listen. The current prices of poultry products especially chicken and eggs are now the highest ever recorded in the country,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Najib acknowledged that steep increases were caused by a lack of manpower in the industry due to the freeze on migrant workers’ intake, and the high prices of poultry feed caused by the increasing cost of soy and corn.

To overcome this, he proposed that the government use the revenue collected from the windfall tax on palm oil producers to subsidise the poultry industry.

“The Barisan Nasional (BN) administration had previously imposed a 3% windfall tax on palm oil when its price was RM3,000 per tonne. When it exceeded RM3,000 per tonne at the end of last year, Perikatan Nasional estimated that it expected to collect RM500 million from this tax.

“Now that the palm oil price has exceeded RM4,300 per tonne, a much higher windfall tax is expected. The government can even raise this tax to 5% or 7% over a period of time so that it will not hurt the producers,” he said.

He said this revenue could be used to subsidise poultry feed as well as the wages of the poultry workers if the government maintained the freeze on the intake of migrant workers.

The price of chicken is currently at RM9.90 to RM10.30 per kg in various parts of the country. - FMT