Everything alright with transporters

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Delivery of essential goods to most rural areas in Sarawak back to normal — Ministry

KUCHING: Delivery of essential goods to most rural areas has returned to normal after the appointment of 108 transporters by the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism this month.

Of the number, four were identified for new rural areas which did not enjoy subsidised transport costs.

Since the beginning of the year the ministry has tightened the selection of transporters who are also offered less profit margin, in an attempt to ensure that appointed transporters are honest. In the process, many former transporters were ousted while new ones were chosen.

During the same process, the ministry encountered a bit of a problem when transporters who were not reappointed made a pact with the rural retail post owners not to cooperate with the new transporters by rejecting goods sent by these new kids on the block. The problem is especially serious in Sibu and Kapit.

“Many of these rural retail posts or points-of-sale such as grocery stores at longhouses were built by the previous transporters. Due to their relationship with the previous transporters, the owners of these retail posts refused to accept the goods sent by the new transporters. To solve the problem, the new transporters will have to identify new retail posts or build new points-of-sale with the rural folk.

“As for the old retail posts, since they are not subsidised, their essential goods would remain expensive,” ministry’s state director Stanley Tan told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He thus urged the rural people to be smart and shop at the points-of-sale which offered subsidised essential goods to reap the benefit from a policy meant to lessen their burden.

“Some owners of posts also asked for credit facilities which the previous transporters did not give them. That would remain to be arranged with the new transporters,” added Tan.

Then, there was also a request from rural retail businessmen for higher commission for sold essential goods, which Tan said had been solved during the meetings in Sibu last Friday.

In Kapit alone, Tan said, six out of the 16 transporters appointed by the ministry had their goods rejected after arriving at the points-of-sale, caused by conflict over LPG(cooking gas).

It all started when the former transporters who were also LPG dealers refused to supply the LPGs to the new transporters.

To overcome the shortage, the new transporters resorted to sourcing their supply from Sibu which incurred extra (transportation) costs.

“And the reason given by the dealers (also former transporters) was that they were worried that the cylinders may not be returned to them,” explained Tan, without giving any details on the three meetings in Sibu to resolve the issues.

Since 2009, to narrow the discrepancy between the prices of goods in urban and rural areas, the government has been subsidising transportation costs of essential goods to rural areas to ensure that rural folk enjoy the same price as those in the urban places.

Due to Sarawak’s vast size, about RM120 million has been allocated this year to subsidise transportation cost of essential goods such as sugar, rice, cooking oil, flour, LPG gas cylinders and diesel to the rural areas.