SHAH ALAM, 30 Oct: The move by the central government to increase the price of sugar by RM0.34 cents on grounds of curbing diabetes among Malaysians is a frivolous and unreasonable excuse.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA) Communications Director, Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman, said that health reasons to raise price of sugar is not accurate because diabetes stems from an individual’s lifestyle.
He said, healthcare awareness campaigns should be increased and intensified instead of increasing the price of the essential good, if the central government wants to care for the people’s health.
“We fear that the same excuse will be used by the government to raise the price of other goods such as flour and rice, which causes an increase in food calories. The government may use the excuse of the increase (in food calories) to raise the price of flour,” he said when contacted by TVSelangor today.
Yusof said that the price increase is too drastic and may hugely affect the price of food and drinks based on sugar consumption.
“It should have not been done drastically and dramatically because the adjustment in sugar price should be carried out in stages so as to have a tremendous impact on the people,” he said.
Meanwhile, he also urged the federal government to inform the people if they intend to raise the price of cooking oil following the withdrawal of subsidies.
Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim questioned the central government’s move of deliberately hiding the increase in cooking oil and instead chose to publicly announce the cut in sugar subsidies during the National Budget 2014 debate session at the House of Representatives yesterday.
He also questioned the move because palm oil production is currently surging and the people are shocked by the sugar price hike.