The government has been urged to review the cooking oil subsidy mechanism so that it can be channelled to the people instead of being abused.

Consumer group Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM) said the cut in the subsidy has caused a shortage in supply of cooking oil and forced vendors to raise food prices.

Nadzim Johan said steps need to be taken to avoid leakages and abuse of the subsidy by certain quarters.

"Cooking oil supply in the country may be sufficient, but in many shops that sell subsidised packet cooking oil, the product is very hard to come by.

"We are concerned the subsidy that the government gives is being abused by certain parties and is not reaching its target groups.

"For example, goreng pisang vendors are forced to raise their prices because they cannot get the subsidised oil," Nadzim told Malaysiakini.

The removal of cooking oil subsidies this month has resulted in some cooking oil producers raising the price of their products by about 60 percent.

On Nov 1, subsidies were completely removed for all types of cooking oil except the 1kg packet variety, which retailed at RM2.50.