JOHOR BARU, July 3 — The Johor Consumerism, Human Resource and Unity executive committee is keen to set up a state-level consumer rights organisation to assist the federal government.
Its newly-minted chairman S. Ramakrishnan said the state government is willing to contribute to build a strong consumer movement among the people.
“We (state government) want to develop an umbrella organisation focused on consumer rights that can conduct surveys and also research with data that can be channelled to assist the federal government,” he said after a discussion with several Johor-based consumer non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and entrepreneur associations at the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) at Galleria@Kotaraya here today.
Ramakrishnan said the new organisation can be modelled after Penang’s not-for-profit independent organisation, the Consumers’ Association of Penang’s (CAP).
Also present at the discussion was Johor Information, Entrepreneurship Development, Cooperatives and Creative Economy committee chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali and senior state government officers.
With the plan, Ramakrishnan said the state government aims to create a pro-active consumer culture among Johoreans, which can be developed with proper support.
“The state government will support those keen to build up the proposed state-wide consumer organisation with financial support, grants and also skills training.
“At present, we find that the districts have consumer groups, but none are properly affiliated or united under a larger organisation in the state,” he said.
In a related development, Ramakrishnan urged consumers in Johor to have proper details pertaining to cases involving profiteering and price increases in relation to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) since June 1.
“Consumers have to be vigilant in checking that traders are adhering to the zero per cent GST rate.
“Details such as documentation, evidence and also the business addresses can be channelled to the state’s Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry’s (KPDNKK) enforcement unit for investigation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Johor KPDNKK director Khairul Anwar Bachok said a state enforcement operation in relation to the GST for the entire month of June saw a total of 3,281 business premises offering 68.664 goods and services were inspected.
“Of that figure, Johor received a total of 170 complaints and issued 50 warnings to traders who failed to reduce their prices in line with the zero per cent GST since June 1,” he said.
