Michael Tiang
KUCHING: Many merchants across Sarawak are facing ‘oppressive investigation’ conducted by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Department (KPDNHEP) following the implementation of Sales and Services Tax (SST).
In pointing this out today, Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth chief Michael Tiang said he and his comrades had interviewed some merchants early this week which led them to discovering the ‘oppressive investigation’.
Not only did their interviews reveal that officers from KPDNHEP had different requirements on the merchants, but the SUPP Youth Section also ‘confirmed that the majority of the prices of consumer products hike up between five and 10 per cent’, he said at a news conference held at the SUPP headquarters here today.
Tiang, who is political secretary to the Chief Minister, said he has proof that the prices of many consumer products had gone up at least five per cent.
According to him, this is because merchants have been served notices from major suppliers or manufacturers in Malaysia with regard to the price hike.
Following such price hike, he said merchants would have to adjust their retailing prices but officers from KPDNHEP had made their lives difficult with the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
Tiang said the department had not come up with a guideline for merchants to comply with in terms of ‘unreasonable profit margin”‘.
He added that as many as 90 per cent of merchants remained clueless about the definition of ‘unreasonable’, and as such, he called upon KPDNHEP to conduct dialogues and workshops statewide to enlighten merchants.