KUALA TERENGGANU, May 31 — The supply of essential goods nationwide is still adequate and stable despite the reported increase in shopping activities at supermarkets over the past three days, says Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Rosol Wahid.
He said a total of 2,262 enforcement officers from the ministry were monitoring and checking supplies at all levels of the supply chain nationwide.
“Besides that, a total of 222 Parliamentary Consumerism Coordinators (PKP) from the ministry were also helping to monitor at their respective parliamentary constituencies. If the inspection detects a supply problem, immediate action will be taken to address it.
“For example, our survey at one of the largest wholesale companies in Kuala Terengganu today found that sugar supply had been disrupted for the past two weeks, so immediate action has been taken for it to be resolved as soon as possible, and so that it does not affect consumers,” he told reporters today.
Also present was Terengganu KPDNHEP director Saharuddin Mohd Kia.
Among the items monitored daily are sugar, cooking oil, wheat flour, rice, white bread, milk powder, chicken, vegetables, eggs, onions, hand sanitising fluids and face masks.
He said the monitoring included 160 selected district retailers (DDR) and 74 selected district wholesalers (DDW) throughout Terengganu who had been given permission to store scheduled controlled items at 20 per cent above the storage limit in their licences.
In the meantime, he said the operation to monitor the two-hour maximum shopping time limit implemented by the ministry had been put on hold after the government announced a ‘total lockdown’, in order to avoid panic buying among the public.
“During its implementation which from May 25 to May 29, a total of 1,257 premises and 11,975 customers were inspected nationwide.
“During the period, no compounds were issued and the public compliance rate was good....only some had exceeded the time by four minutes. Overall, they understood the purpose of the operation held to prevent the spread of Covid-19,” he said. — Bernama
