KOTA KINABALU, Aug 2 — The ceiling price for five-kilogramme (kg) bottled cooking oil has been capped at RM34.70 for Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan effective August 8, similar to Peninsular Malaysia.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi also said that the ceiling price for the 1kg bottled cooking oil was set at RM7.70, 2kg bottled cooking oil (RM14.70) and 3kg bottled cooking oil (RM21.70).

The mechanism to determine the ceiling price is based on the simulated sales price of pure cooking oil at retail level, taking into consideration current developments of crude palm oil at global markets.

"However, the setting of the ceiling price also considered several contingency costs, including logistics, as well as situations faced by some retailers to exhaust their supply of pure cooking oil bought at old prices,” he said in a statement today.

Nanta said the setting of the monthly ceiling price for unsubsidised cooking oil is based on the previous month’s average global price of a metric tonne of crude palm oil (CPO) was decided at the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation meeting yesterday.

"The average monthly CPO price was determined by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry on the 1st of every month followed by the announcement of the ceiling price of bottled cooking oil for the month, effective 8th till 7th of the following month,” he said.

The taskforce chairman, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, had announced yesterday that the bottled cooking oil would be sold at RM34.70 this month effective August 8 and the price would only be for Peninsular Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Nanta said the ban on unsubsidised pure cooking oil in all forms of polybags was gazetted yesterday to avoid confusion among consumers and exporters and to improve effectiveness of monitoring to reduce leakages. — Bernama