ALOR GAJAH: The blatant violation of a trader selling packets of subsidised cooking oil to restaurant businesses managed by foreigners was exposed during Op Kita Gempur (operation against manipulation and leakage) held in the Kelemak area today.
Melaka Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) director Norena Jaafar said the 40-year-old trader gave the excuse of being under obligation to sell the 1kg cooking oil packets in large quantities because the restaurant owners in question were regular customers and often bought goods from his shop.
“The act of the individual is an offence under the Control of Supplies Act 1961 because packet cooking oil is for household use and not for commercial purposes such as restaurant business.
“KPDN Melaka also issued a stern warning to retail shops that focused solely on profit making by selling (subsidised goods) more than the allowed limit,“ she said after Op Kita Gempur was held at Taman Mewah in Kelemak here today.
Commenting further, Norena said that during the operation, authorities also issued a compound fine to the restaurant owner who was suspected of using subsidised cooking oil for their business.
She said going by several inspections conducted, she found that a few of them used the modus operandi of re-packaging the cooking oil in five-kilogramme capacity bottles to obscure the authorities.
“KPDN Melaka will continue to carry out aggressive screening under Op Kita Gempur to detect retail shops and traders who are still leaking the supply of this subsidised cooking oil packets.
“Previously, we carried out inspection at the supplier level involving 237 wholesalers under Op Kita Gempur and detected eight offences, including selling of packet cooking oil which is a controlled item to unregistered traders and others,“ she said.
