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Cheaper goods in rural areas

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Datuk Stanley Tan

PRICE CONTROL PROGRAMME

KUCHING: The price control programme implemented by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) has succeeded in bringing down the retail price of essential goods sold in rural areas.

KPDNHEP Sarawak director Datuk Stanley Tan said the programme was an initiative of the federal government to help rural folk, especially in Sarawak and Sabah.

“This programme is to control the prices of seven essential goods sold in rural areas so that they are the same as those in urban areas,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

“Prices of goods are higher in rural areas due to the high cost of transportation,” he explained.

He said through the programme, the federal government provided subsidy for transportation to lower the prices of the goods in rural areas.

He cited as an example, a remote village in Miri, where before the programme, the prices of essential goods such as sugar (RM5/kg), flour (RM5/kg), cooking oil (RM8/kg), rice (RM60/10kg), gas cylinders (RM130/unit), RON95 petrol (RM6.40/litre), and diesel (RM6.10/litre).

After the programme was implemented, Tan said that the cost of such goods had decreased, such as sugar now costing RM2.85/kg, flour (RM1.35/kg), petrol RON95 (RM1.31/litre), diesel (RM1.45/litre), and so on.