Steps taken to resolve disparity of prices – Armizan

KOTA KINABALU (June 27): The government has been taking steps to resolve the longstanding disparity of the prices of goods between Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan and the Peninsular.

Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said this involves policies and programmes across various ministries and agencies covering aspects of subsidy mechanismes for goods, food items, transport, etc.

Among them are two main programmes under the direct responsibility of KPDN, namely the Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan Price Standardisation Programme (PPHSSL) or Port to Port with an annual RM40 million allocation, and the Distribution Programme of Necessary Goods, LPG, Community Drumming (Price Standardisation Programme) or Point of Source (PoS) to Point of Sale (PoS) with an allocation of RM225 million.

At the same time, Armizan said the government also implements programmes in the form of intervention and mitigation through the provision of subsidies to ensure that residents in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan have access to certain basic necessities and food items.

For example, he said the issue of the significant difference in the price of goods between the three regions has been one of the factors for the government’s consideration to continue for the time being the existing method of providing diesel subsidies at petrol stations and diesel subsidies for fishermen involving an estimated allocation of RM3.6 billion for 2024 for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

He said the government will also continue to provide certain food subsidies for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan, such as through the provision of egg subsidy assistance involving an allocation of RM96 million for 2023.

Similarly, taking into account the very limited supply of local rice in the market in the three regions, he said the government has provided subsidies for imported rice to Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan with an allocation RM92.84 million for 2023, specifically from October to December.

“In 2024, these subsidy allocations are expected to reach up to RM500 million,” he said during the Parliament question and answer session today.

Armizan was responding to Tawau member of parliament Lo Su Fui who asked on the government’s plan to standardise the prices of goods between the Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak.

In the same vein, the minister said the government has established a Price Stabilisation Committee in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan this year, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister II Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof and placed under the National Livelihood Action Council (NACCOL).

“This committee is responsible for examining issues and challenges and carrying out studies related to the problem of the prices of goods and services in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

“It is also responsible for devising strategies and mechanismes to stabilise and ensure more sustainable prices in the region,” he said.

Armizan said in addition to federal ministries and agencies, this committee also consists of representatives from the state governments of Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

He added that through this conmittee, a comprehensive study on price stabilisation is being carried out since May this year by Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to identify the issues of the price gap and to submit related recommendations and suggestions.