Solve egg shortage and vegetable price hike first, Gerakan tells govt

 

How can the government handle the country’s economic development when it can’t even manage the shortage of eggs and increase in vegetable prices, Gerakan has asked.

Its deputy chairperson Oh Tong Keong said this in reference to the claim by the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) recently that the price of vegetables had gone up 160 percent in the last month.

“Vegetable prices have gone up by 160 percent, why is the government not doing anything?

“The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry should investigate the cause of this price hike so that low-wage earners are not affected, and also act against traders who hike prices without reason,” Oh (above) said in a statement today.

Yesterday, the ministry’s Penang director S Jegan reportedly said that the price of 10 vegetables has indeed gone up in the last month but not by 160 percent as claimed by CAP.

In fact, vegetable prices have gone down by up to 20 percent at some premises, he said.

Elaborating, Oh urged the government to monitor the marketing of vegetables and the domestic wholesale process to prevent intermediaries from profiteering.

On another matter, he claimed that the quality of eggs imported from India is not comparable with the average price of an egg.

“The government can increase the ceiling price to 50 sen or provide higher subsidy to poultry breeders to give them a competitive edge to increase their output.

“Eggs imported from India, which are currently sold for 50 sen each, are higher than the ceiling price set by the government. This approach by the government is akin to maliciously punishing egg-laying chicken breeders.” - Mkini