Thrice a week, Afifah Aziz will browse through the 1Malaysia Pengguna Bijak (1MPB) web portal to find a nearby supermarket which offers the lowest price for consumer products and personal care items.

For Afifah, who is a general clerk from Subang Jaya, Selangor, the portal, which can be reached at www.1Pengguna.com , is her vital source of reference, especially in finding out and making comparison of the price of products available in various supermarkets in her area, before making the purchase.

"I will look at all the pricelists and make comparison between supermarkets before heading to the one that offers the lowest price," she told Bernama in a recent interview here.

Afifah admitted that she also appreciated the information about consumer's rights made available in the portal.

Another active user of the portal, Christina Ulau Lian shared Afifah's view that the portal could help consumers in finding out the price of certain products and make comparison between supermarkets.

"It also helps consumers to estimate their budget before going to the supermarket," she said.

The 25-year-old clerk, however, hoped that the number of business premises listed in the portal would be updated from time to time.

The portal was developed by the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry since June this year, with the aim of enabling consumers to check the price of consumer products sold at 1,255 business premises nationwide.

The business premises listed in the portal comprised 110 hypermarkets, 404 supermarkets, 360 wet markets and 381 24-hour convenience stores.

The portal is being monitored by 1,200 of the ministry's price watch officers who will ensure that all participating business operators are selling their products at a reasonable price.

It is also an alternative channel for consumers to discuss consumerism issues through interactive links like forum, blog, chatroom and question-and-answer session with the minister.

Include shops in rural areas too

Meanwhile, Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia executive secretary Nadzim Johan described the portal as a government facility which should be put to optimum use by the public to ensure that their rights as consumers would not be violated.

"Right now, they have to interact with the government by giving their feedback and opinions because the government needs such information before making any improvement to the system," he said.

Malaysia Consumer Advisory Association president M Baratharajoo, on the other hand, called on the ministry to list out retail shops in rural areas in the portal.

"It's unfair if only hypermarkets were listed (in the portal) because most hypermarkets are located in major towns," he said.

He also said that the ministry should put a balance between the price of consumer products in urban and rural areas to ensure that the consumers would not be burdened by unreasonable high price.

- Bernama