Leave frozen for 2,000 officers

The Star

PETALING JAYA: More than 2,000 enforcement officers of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry have had their Hari Raya leave frozen so as to keep tabs on traders during the festive season.

“The ministry’s enforcement officers nationwide are required to monitor markets and retail outlets to ensure traders obey the law,” said minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, adding that leave for the ministry's personnel has been frozen from Oct 4 to Oct 17.

Leave would also be frozen during the Deepavali holidays next month, he told reporters after conducting price checks at the Section 17 morning market here yesterday.

Between Sept 13 and yesterday, 212,392 retail outlets and markets have been inspected.

Two hundred licences were issued to traders for the sale of controlled items, 672 traders were issued compounds totalling RM86,950 and RM119,096 worth of goods were confiscated by the ministry during this period.

Based on statistics provided by the ministry, offences most committed were failure to display pink price tags for controlled items (502 cases) and selling goods above ceiling prices (64).

Selangor, Terengganu and Perak recorded the most errant traders with 82, 78 and 73 cases respectively.

On the price rise of Nestle milk products, Shafie said the increase was done in stages so that consumers would not feel the sudden price pinch.

He said prices of dairy products worldwide had gone up because European farmers no longer received subsidies and it was inevitable that consumers were affected.