A FORMER Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) leader ridiculed the newly-formed Special Jihad Taskforce Against Inflation for making a “shocking” discovery; subsidised 1kg edible oil was being sold online.
“If that is your biggest discovery, even a primary school kid could have done it. No need to form a taskforce consisting of five ministers,” said A Kadir Jasin, in a Facebook post.
Yesterday (July 3), the taskforce chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa “discovered” that subsidised cooking oil packets were being sold online.
“We found out about it this week. Certain irresponsible people are selling the subsidised cooking oil packets on popular online platforms.
“This is against the law and we (the task force) have evidence of the sale being carried out,” New Straits Times reported him as saying.
Touching on the matter, Kadir said that to find workable solutions to the rising cost of prices, one should eliminate issues beyond the Government’s control first such as COVID-19’s resurgence, war in Ukraine and the US’ move to tighten their monetary policy.
After the elimination process, Putrajaya should then work on domestic policies which is causing prices to rise.
“For example, when the Government implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2015, the nation’s coffers saw a revenue increase but inflation soared from 2.10% in 2015 to 3.87% in 2017.
“When Pakatan Harapan came to power in 2018, they abolished the GST. Yes, the nation’s coffers saw a dip in revenue but inflation went down to 0.88% that year. It went further down to 0.66% in 2019,” Kadir mentioned.
Inept ministers
As such, he added, when the Government decided to remove subsidy for edible oil on July 1, its prices soared by 40% which will increase inflation rate, inevitably.
“Of course, the Government will enjoy more revenue. However, what I find peculiar is that all the ministers in the taskforce agreed to the subsidy removal.
“Naturally, prices will increase after subsidy is removed but when that happens, inflation will soar too. Now, the same ministers want to fight inflation,” Kadir quipped.
Nevertheless, Kadir said it was important for an official from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to be in the team as the person would know better on how to institute a proper monetary policy to manage inflation and the economy.
“In essence, this is the problem when you have a backdoor Government running the country. They have no clue on what to do and are reactive instead of being proactive,” he remarked. – July 3, 2022
