Traders Reminded Not To Make Excessive Profits - KPDNNS

SEREMBAN, March 2 (Bernama) -- The Negeri Sembilan branch of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDNNS) advises traders not to reap excessive profits or impose excessively high prices that burden consumers.

Its chief enforcement officer, Faizah Othman, said that although it does not directly control food prices as these do not fall under price control, it is committed to ensuring that consumers enjoy reasonable prices.

"We will conduct continuous monitoring, especially at all Ramadan bazaars, including sales premises, to ensure that the prices of goods sold comply with the established requirements and regulations to prevent any elements of price manipulation from occurring.

"If there are complaints about traders charging excessively high prices, a notice will be issued to them to obtain preliminary information before further inspection and analysis are conducted, including assessing the profit margins obtained to determine whether price gouging has occurred or not," she said to reporters after surveying the KPDN ‘Operasi Pantau’ (monitoring operation) at the Ramadan Bazaar in Seremban 2 today.

She said that the determination of price gouging is based on a specific formula and the act of taking unreasonable profits is an offence under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.

Meanwhile, Faizah said that throughout the Op Pantau operation conducted from Feb 19 to March 1, a total of 345 premises were inspected, and 14 premises were found to have committed offences under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, with a total fine of RM1,400.

"Among the detected offences are not displaying price tags, selling controlled price items above the maximum price, possessing goods without a licence, and using or possessing unverified weighing/measuring instruments," he added.

-- BERNAMA