Sundry shop owners across the country are threatening to stop selling sugar, cooking oil and flour after June 15 if the Najib administration insists on requiring them to be licensed to sell these items.
MCA president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek met members of the Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Association of Malaysia, who voiced the threat.
He told them he would appeal to the government to intervene and find a solution.
“The move is not a protest but the association feels it’s an additional burden on them,” Chua told reporters today.
He said the federation represents 20,000 shops across the country that continue to serve most Malaysians despite the increasing number of supermarkets and hypermarkets.
Chua said MCA deputy president and Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai would raise the issue in the Cabinet this week.
Last week, Domestic Trade, Co-operative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the move requiring traders selling the price-controlled items to have a retail licence from June 15.
The one-time payment of RM10 for the licence was to help the government monitor the sale of the items.
However, during the discussion earlier today Chua said he was shock to discover that sundry shops already had to apply for up to nine licences to operate annually.
These include licences for business operations, premises, signboard as well as for fire and safety.
There are also separate licences for the sale of alcohol, rice, cooking gas and to operate weighing machines.
“The cost of these licences amounts to RM1,107,” he said, adding the extra licence will further add to their burden.
Sundry shops currently make only 3 sen per kg of sugar sold, 20 sen for five kg of cooking oil and 3 sen per kg of flour, the federation said.
Chua said the profits are minimal and the sundry shops regard the sale of these items as “providing a public service”.
However, he has asked the federation to reconsider its decision to stop selling these items.
“We feel the government will solve their problem,” he said.
The federation decided on its action at an emergency general meeting yesterday, its president Lean Hing Chuan said, adding that it was aware the move by the government was to prevent hoarding of controlled items.
But it felt it was easier for the government to monitor factories and wholesalers.
It now hopes the MCA can resolve the problem, he said.
However, Lean said it would get traders from other associations to join in the move to stop selling these items if the government did not reconsider the need for the new licence.
