KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — Almost 500 Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN) enforcement officers and personnel have been mobilised under Ops Kesan 2.0 that began today in the East Coast.
In Kelantan, 142 enforcement officers along with 86 price monitor officers conducted inspections at business premises in conjunction of the operation related to the targeted diesel subsidies and would take action against premises that raised prices within 24 hours of receiving complaints, Kelantan KPDN director Azman Ismail said.
“KPDN Kelantan will monitor and conduct enforcement based on the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011,” he told Bernama today, while in Pahang, KPDN state director Jezlily Jamaluddin said the operation would be conducted on a daily basis, with 150 personnel mobilised in their respective areas in the state.
“Ops Kesan 2.0 will continue like previous operations and it will monitor the effect of the implementation of targeted diesel subsidies focusing on avoiding profiteering,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Terengganu, state KPDN director Saharuddin Mohd Kia said they were mobilising 117 enforcement officers and personnel to check on any drastic price hikes or profiteering by unscrupulous business owners.
“Price monitoring officers will conduct price checks daily and if there’s a price alert from the Price Catcher (a KPDN app) about a price hike, then our enforcement team will conduct an inspection to determine if there are elements of profiteering,” he said.
In Penang, state KPDN director S Jegan said that they would initially focus on inspections on 20 companies for the operation, all of whom had registered with the Mysubsidi Diesel 2.0 and were approved.
“This is to ensure all increased charges that occur in the service sector approved under the subsidised diesel application, both qualified and unqualified vehicles, comply with the legal mechanism to determine profiteering.
“Based on inspections till today, we have yet to receive any complaints regarding high or unreasonable charges or services for those sectors,” he told Bernama today, adding that they had implemented a pioneer project regarding the matter from January.
Yesterday Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali launched Ops Kesan 2.0, which takes effect from today to ensure there was no profiteering on the prices of goods and services using the excuse of the rationalisation of the retail price of diesel at petrol stations. — Bernama
