KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) has prepared a report on cartel activities involving rice and padi, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Fuziah Salleh said that the study includes examining potential abuses of dominant positions by companies controlling seed supply, imports, and other areas.
“Regarding rice and farmers, I would like to inform that MyCC has completed its study report on the rice and padi cartel. However, I cannot reveal the details here until the official report is disclosed, but it has been completed,” she said during the Q&A session.
She was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kasim (PN-Arau), who inquired about the ministry’s efforts to control rice prices and proposals to increase the padi purchase floor price, currently set at RM1,300 per tonne.
To Shahidan’s original question on the government’s efforts to tackle cartel and monopoly issues that influence rising prices, Fuziah explained that MyCC plays a role in investigating and taking action against any cartel and monopoly activities along the supply chain.
“A cartel occurs when several companies collude to control prices, such as in animal feed, and if they agree along the supply chain, food prices will increase.
“A monopoly, on the other hand, happens when a company abuses its dominant position by imposing different conditions to gain profit… in such cases, MyCC conducts investigations and takes action if there is cartel or monopoly activity,” she added.
Meanwhile, responding to another supplementary question from Datuk Mohd Isam Mohd Isa (BN-Tampin) on the current status of the Menu Rahmah programme, Fuziah said that Menu Rahmah discount cardholders can now make purchases at the Jualan Rahmah events held nationwide.
She explained that flexibility was given to Menu Rahmah operators to make it easier for them to obtain basic goods at lower prices compared to supermarkets, which have different management systems.
“We introduced the Menu Rahmah discount card in November last year to provide discounts to Menu Rahmah operators so they could purchase essentials. However, after several months, we found issues because supermarkets offering this discount have different systems, and one card couldn’t be used at all supermarkets.
“We’ve now addressed this by allowing Menu Rahmah discount cardholders to buy at Jualan Rahmah, which was previously not allowed for vendors,” she said. – Bernama
