Same old control of supply and prices of foodstuff

Sun Daily - Ministry to ensure enough fish supply in monsoon season:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (MOA) will be monitoring to ensure sufficient fish supply in the country during the coming monsoon season.

Its minister, Datuk Salahuddin Ayub said today the MOA together with the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) would ensure adequate food supply and that prices would be kept under control.

"We always cooperate and have a joint committee to monitor and ensure enough supply ... that is our task, but the price of goods will be controlled by KPDNHEP.

"We will try our best in addressing the problem of price hikes faced by the people. We will strive to ensure sufficient supply of goods at affordable prices."

Salahuddin said this when met at a session with the media at Menara Lembaga Pertubuhan Peladang, here. — Bernama.

Some 1.5 months ago, our minister Salahuddin Ayub, while at the PM's Hari Raya 'Open House'  commented bullshit-ishly (like my visitor CK):

... there were already noticeable price reductions in fresh produce, such as vegetables. “Vegetable prices have dropped by 50% while prices of poultry and meat, such as beef, have also been reduced.”

“I was told that you can buy poultry at RM5 or RM6 per kilogramme. Beef can be purchased at RM30 to R.33, but tenderloin (batang pinang) is more expensive.”

I had to say that the Amanah minister then made an amazing and very astonishing revelation on Hari Raya Day, praise be to Allah swt, that non-GST items like vegetables, poultry, meat, enjoyed terrific price-drops with the GST on them being then zero-rated.

But he seems a good bloke (as most Amanah pollies are - where my favourite is Hanipa Maidin) so I believed he a good Muslim was not deliberately lying, but like his party leader Mat Sabu, recently committing a faux pas on revealing the serviceability rate of the RMAF fighter aircraft, was probably briefed by dungu's. or sabotaged by civil servants who still owed their political allegiance to the previous regime's, wakakaka.

One month later in parliament, after Wee Ka Siong challenged Salahuddin's mistake in claiming zero-rating the GST brought about a 50% price drop, embarrassingly on non-GST items, opposition leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi glibly said:

"We forgive those who are still excited in their new seat for making mistakes".

I wonder whether Salahuddin will make that same mistake again with his promise to ensure sufficient fish supply in the country during the coming monsoon season.

But one point that I have been criticising has been the necessity of the ministry's controlling food prices. We are not a communist-fascist nation like North Korea or the old Soviet Union (USSR) where food are/were usually in such scarcity that there would be state control of the required items.

Just as an aside - let me tell you an episode of such scarcity of items in those communist-fascist states:

Eons ago bloke in the USSR paid the money in advance for a lousy state produced car. (sounds familiar? wakakaka)

And 'advance' meant 10 years in advance. Before he left with his receipt he asked the official who took the advance payment: "Will the car be delivered in the morning or afternoon?"

The official answered: "What does it matter whether it'll be in the morning or afternoon when it will be in 10 years time".

The bloke said: "Well, the electrician who'll be coming to fix my lighting promises to come in the morning".

Anyway, I dislike seeing price controlled inspectors patrolling the commercial-market areas to ensure, for example, teh-susu-ais is RM2 or RM2.7 or whatever and capati (which Pakatan loves, wakakaka) is only RM2.80 or whatever.

And of course that kembong, kerang, kangkung would be GST-free, wakakaka, especially for anaemic suffering Mrs Zahara, wakakaka again.

Just leave it to market forces (like in sales of durians) and the public should do without any items that are prohibitively expensive. It's like so in Australia whether pre Christmas or pre Easter season, etc. The prices shoot up but return to normal after the peak period.

My Uncs told me that during Mahathir's reign as PM, one of the Chosen Ones thought he would corner the imported mandarin orange market during the pre Chinese New Year period. He had lusted after the hundreds of millions traded in each of the previous years, and his greed was such he used his connections to enable him to exercise complete monopoly over the importation.

The traders were furious and so were the Chinese consumers. Both sectors boycotted mandarin oranges in an anger-prompted willingness to forego cultural imperatives to have mandarin oranges during the Chinese New Year period.

That greedy bloke suffered severe losses as tons and tons of imported mandarin oranges rotted away. The boycott continued even as he tried to do a fire-sale.

In 1977 the Americans once did that with Brazilian coffee as well, and most successfully as they boycotted the prohibitively priced imported coffee.

I had hope for better from a Pakatan government but the Big Brother mentality continues, even into our food items.

Related:

(1) Minister: Removal of GST made vegetables 50%.

(2) Pakatan's further bull on GST.