PUTRAJAYA, May 22 — The maximum price for chicken, which is RM7.50 a kilogramme for this year’s Festive Season Maximum Price Control Scheme (SHMMP) in conjunction with Hari Raya Aidilfitri, is the same as during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration, said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi.

In a statement today, he denied claims by PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that chicken prices during the Aidilfitri festival when PH was ruling, was RM3 per kg as records revealed that the maximum price was RM7.50 per kg.

"He (Anwar) can ask the former KPDNHEP Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution to be certain as the last SHMMP gazette was signed by him,” Nanta said in commenting on a statement made by the opposition leader in a broadcast streamed live on his official Facebook page.

Nanta said it was unfair to say that the KPDNHEP minister was slow in acting to control the price of goods ahead of the celebration, as the enforcement team had been monitoring the situation despite the Covid-19 outbreak.

He said pricing of consumer goods had nothing to do with politics as it is based on a specific mechanism set by officials of various government agencies.

He said the same mechanism was also used by the KPDNHEP during the previous PH administration but this time around, the number of control items had increased to 35 items compared to 27 in 2019. — Bernama