A total of 333 cases involving various offences by traders were recorded by the Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs Ministry since the Festive Season Maximum Price Control Scheme (SHMMP) came into effect on May 21.

Its minister, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said the cases were detected from checks on more than 5,6000 premises nationwide in conjunction with the Aidilfitri, Keamatan and Gawai celebrations in May and June.

“From those checks, compounds totalling RM41,850 were issued to errant traders, involving more than 300 violations, for failing to display the pink price tags or not having any put up at all.

“Another 12 cases involved hiking up prices and breaching the maximum price, and I can conclude that with so few cases, consumers have benefited from the effectiveness of this (SHMMP) scheme.

“The wholesalers and the retailers were very disciplined as well and in the end, the consumers had benefited from all these,” Saifuddin told Bernama at Wisma Bernama in Kuala Lumpur last night.

He said this when met after his interview in the “Ruang Bicara” programme of Bernama News Channel (BNC) to discuss the effectiveness of the SHMMP scheme.

He said this year, the ministry had worked together with the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry to ensure food supplies were sufficient.

“The number of items in the SHMMP list this year was increased to 27, compared to 21 items before this. Among the new ones included were groundnuts and fish,” Saifuddin said.

At the same time, he said the government's move to extend the SHMMP period from 15 to 30 days (till this Wednesday) was also successful in reducing the number of violations, especially during the festive period.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin acknowledged that the hike in red chilli prices this festive season was due to short supply which forced traders to import them.

- Bernama