5kg buying limit on cooking oil

By MAZWIN NIK ANIS, SYLVIA LOOI, SIRA HABIBU, CAROLYN OOI and STEVEN DANIEL

PUTRAJAYA: Five kilograms – that is the maximum amount of cooking oil that each consumer can buy when a move to solve the shortage of the essential item is enforced next week.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal however did not specify when the move would be implemented to increase stocks of cooking oil, especially in areas like Kelantan, Pahang, Malacca, Kedah and some parts of the Klang Valley where the shelves are getting bare.

Scarce commodity: A customer picking up a bottle of cooking oil from an almost empty rack at a hypermarket in Petaling Jaya yesterday. The Government hopes to overcome the shortage in a week or two. — AZHAR MAHFOF / The Star

Shafie said that while manufacturers have been instructed to increase production from 48,000 tonnes to 53,886 tonnes a month, the restriction in purchase was necessary to ensure there would be no hoarding or panic buying.