Umno should not blame Chinese traders about the prices of goods that have not gone down, PKR said today.

PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli, who specifically cited Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan, stressed that the federal government should not be blaming traders over the matter.

Ahmad ( right ) had continuously expressed "hope" that traders would lower the prices of goods in line with the reduced price of fuel.

It is because of Ahmad's statement, Rafizi said, that Umno bloggers have been blaming the Chinese.

"It is worse when ministers do not do anything about the Umno activists who claim that the prices of goods have not been reduced due to the Chinese traders' greed," he added.

'Easy way out'

"How can you make a public plea and then expect the prices of goods to go down when it is, in fact, the government which has the power to lower the prices of goods?" Rafizi queried.

Echoing Rafizi, Kapar MP G Manivanan said that the government had taken the easy way out by blaming the traders.

"You have to control as well as monitor, if you don't do these things, how do you expect the prices of goods to be lowered?

"And when the BN government failed to monitor, we are the ones who have to take the initiative to do their work," added Manivanan.

Meanwhile on another matter, Rafizi ( left ) said the government should revise the fuel price mechanism so that the rakyat would not have to pay "hidden taxes".

It is estimated that the rakyat now have an average of 30 sen more than the market price for fuel. As such, a family which uses around 200 litres of fuel per month is taxed for RM60.

"By changing the mechanism so that the price of fuel is decreased weekly, Malaysians will at least have RM60 more to spend and this would be more than the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) handed out by the government," he noted.