Weekly Keluarga Malaysia Sales from mid-August nationwide - Annuar

KUALA LUMPUR: The Keluarga Malaysia Sales programme will be implemented in 639 state constituencies nationwide weekly from mid-August, said Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said the programme would give access to the people to obtain cheaper goods weekly for 18 weeks until the end of the year.

"The programme will involve five ministries and would be based on a set of guidelines under the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP)," he said in a media conference after chairing the Special Force meeting at Parliament Building here today.

Annuar said the five ministries involved have started taking action to implement the cheap sale programme according to the guidelines and would be monitored by KPDNHEP.

Apart from KPDNHEP, the four ministries cooperating in the implementation of the programme are the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry, Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry, Rural Development Ministry and Federal Territories Ministry.

Meanwhile, Annuar said the Cooperative Commission has put up a proposal on the involvement of the cooperative movement to sell essential goods including those under the Price Control Scheme such as chicken, sugar, cooking oil, flour and rice at prices lower than the market rate.

He said the mechanism would involve thousands of cooperative shops nationwide which have the capability and capacity to distribute essential products.

"The concept through this cooperation is that the prices of goods sold must be reduced as its condition. We are confident that the prices of goods would be lower for us to assist the people through these cooperative shops," he said.

In another development, Annuar said communication with the people on a certain issue should provide explanation and understanding to avoid misunderstanding.

"As an example, the announcement on the overnight policy rate (OPR). Such announcements had been made in the past from time to time but it did not attract the attention of the people in general.

"...but when it took place at the time of inflationary pressure, a rise in OPR is made an issue," he said.

Therefore, he said the task force would also be stepping efforts in the aspect of communication and delivering information to the people.

Apart from that, the special task force would also be fed with the latest information by the Statistics Department on the current inflation situation.

-- BERNAMA