KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 – A total of 18 investigation papers on profiteering have been opened since the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on April 1. Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah said of the total, action had been taken on 11 cases under Section 14 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 for profiteering.
“Another seven are offences under Section 21 (5) of the act for failing to provide feedback notice within three days,” he said when winding-up debate for his ministry on the motion of thanks for the royal address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at the Senate here today.
On the issue of monitoring and enforcement of prices during the implementation of the GST, Ahmad Bashah said as of Sunday, April 19, a total of 16,534 complaints had been received through the Anti-Profiteering Operations Centre (PGAP) besides complaints received online such as through the E-Aduan system, the Ez-ADU application and social media.
“Other than that, the consumers can also check the prices through the MyKira GST application…and if the prices are outside the permitted range, consumers can send their complaints through this application. So far, there have been 83,119 price checks through this system,” he said.
Ahmad Bashah also said from April 1 till yesterday, 133,309 premises had been checked under the Anti-Profiteering Operations (Ops Catut 2) and out of the total, 380 cases were recorded with value of goods seized amounting to RM70,000. “There were also compounds worth RM59,000 issued. In addition, 651 notices under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 were issued to traders who had increased their prices,” he said.
