Liquor ban: Shahidan flayed for 'upgrade sundry shop to supermarket' proposal

 

PARLIAMENT | Federal Territories Minister Shahidan Kassim was criticised today for allegedly telling industry players that sundry shops in Kuala Lumpur should "upgrade" into a supermarket in order to sell liquor.

Teresa Kok (Harapan-Seputeh) told the Dewan Rakyat she was informed that Shahidan (above) had made the remark when meeting the Associated Liquor Merchants Association of Malaysia (Alma) and other industry players on Monday.

"The minister told representatives of convenience stores and Chinese medicine halls to apply to the Companies Commission to change the nature of their business from 'sundry shop' to 'supermarket'.

"This is because supermarkets are allowed to sell liquor according to new City Hall guidelines. This does not make sense. It means that in the future, a lot of 'sundry shops' will be upgraded to 'supermarkets'.

"If the City Hall guidelines don't work, annul it instead of turning sundry shops into supermarkets," said Kok during the debate on Budget 2022.

This was in reference to the new Kuala Lumpur City Hall rules which prohibited convenience stores, sundry shops and Chinese medicine halls under its jurisdiction from selling liquor from Nov 1.

Don't punish small businesses - Kok 

Kok argued it was unnecessary to punish sundry shops and convenience stores regulated by Alma which have complied with the rules, such as:

1. Restricting alcohol sales to non-Muslims only and those of legal age
2. Ensuring that the establishment was not within 100m radius of a house of worship, school, hospital or within 10m of another similar establishment
3. Not selling liquor after 9pm
4. Only selling liquor registered with the Customs Department

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok

Kok said that the new rules also punished small businesses owned by non-Muslims because liquor sales was an important revenue stream.

"What doesn't make sense about the new rule is that liquor can be sold in hotels, pubs and supermarkets but not in a sundry shop, convenience store or Chinese medicine hall.

"Why are the restrictions only for small and medium businesses?" asked Kok.

The ban was devised last year during former premier Muhyiddin Yassin's administration.

Shahidan only became the federal territories minister in August.

Officially, the federal government's position was that the objective was to limit access to liquor among Muslims as well as those below the age of 21. - Mkini