PARLIAMENT The price of 8,285 types of products have been reduced by up to 70 percent since the national-level Price Reduction Campaign 2015 was launched early this month.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hasan Malek ( right ) said the campaign involved 1,036 retail industry operators nationwide, including hypermarkets and mini markets.

He said this positive development was the result of discussions held between the government and industry players.

“The government has been organising this campaign since 2008. Participation of the industry players is voluntary and prices of their goods this time have down between 10 and 70 percent.

“I regard the campaign this time as historic because one day before it was implemented, the government announced a petrol price increase of 25 sen, but the campaign still received the support of the participants,” he said in reply to a question from Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir (BN-Kulim Bandar Baru) in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Hasan urged other parties such as eatery operators to join the campaign by charging consumers reasonable prices.

To a supplementary question from Abdul Aziz on measures to curb indiscriminate price increase of goods, he said the governmet had hired about 2,000 more enforcement officers for price monitoring.

He said the monitoring was also being assisted by the Village Security and Development Committees in each parliamentary area who were to report directly to the ministry’s headquarters on indiscriminate price increase of goods.

Hasan said complaints from consumers had also increased, indicating the positive effect of consumer education to help fight trade malpractices like  profiteering.

In 2013, 11,851 complaints on price increase were received, with 97 percent resolved, and the number increased by 16 percent to 14,089 in 2014.

- Bernama