Digest on Malaysian News

Malaysia produce fertilizers but bulk of it are exported to other nations. Little are distributed locally.

To make matter worst, cost of shipping resulted in the price of fertilizers in Malaysia to shoot up to almost an uncontrolled level. If the big plantation companies and smallholders are whining about the price of fertilizers getting too expensive, the poor farmers in the rural areas are even most adversely affected, especially those from Sabah and Sarawak.

From the DailyExpress Sabah

Fertiliser price major worry

Kota Kinabalu: The price of fertiliser in the State will continue to greatly affect the profitability of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) in the future and there is very little the smallholders, people or Government can do about it.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd, Dr Pang Teck Wai said this is because the cost of shipping the material into the State is high.

Hence, while palm oil will continue to be Sabah's single largest sector, they should also look into expanding the rubber industry and other agriculture crops.

"Oil palm will definitely still have a very good future but it is just one of the crops," he said when presenting a talk on "Current Economic Scenarios: The POIC Perspective" at Sabah Trade Centre, Thursday.

At the talk, an oil palm smallholder, Leong, said it is very unlikely the price of fertiliser would go down because the bulk of the fertilisers is exported to other countries while only a small amount is available in Sabah.

Pang, on the other hand, said if they abolish the State sales tax on CPO, it would have an impact on Sabah's development.

Last year, Sabah collected RM997 million from CPO sales tax, he said. The Government has taken into consideration the sales tax on smallholders who had complained they could not afford to pay.

"At the Federal level, anyone with less than 100 hectares or 40 acres will not be subjected to the 15 per cent FFB COSS tax," he said.

However, the State Government has yet to implement it in Sabah.

In the Federal Government, he said the windfall tax was changed to FFB COSS tax on June 16 this year, after taking into account the smallholders.

On other developments, Pang said Sabah still has a long way to go to attain some level of economic stability through industrial diversification and transformation.

According to him, there are simply many issues to overcome such as dependence on one sector, high cost of doing business, dependence on imports from Peninsular Malaysia, difficulties in diversification and transforming Sabah's economy.

He foresees that in the next two years, the world, national and state economy would see a slowdown. Sabah's economic growth next year is expected to be less than six per cent.

He said there would be also complications of stagflation and political uncertainty. With all the problems looming ahead, Pang said the slowdown could be offset through State and Federal government spending.

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For decades, East Malaysian have been paying higher on products and services. Bintulu produces gas, yet the price of gas in peninsular Malaysia is cheaper. Sabah is a major oil palm producer in Malaysia yet palm oil in Sabah is costlier than in peninsular Malaysia.

Wait until end of next month and see if the Federal Government will standardise the prices of subsidised goods throughout the country as promised, following grouses raised by consumers in Sabah and Sarawak over price discrepancies.

Other unfair pricing include higher cost of locally made car compare to those car with better quality imported from Korea. In addition, local cars assembled for export market cost lower than the car meant for domestic markets.

Malaysia used to be the major exporter of rubber yet during those time, cost of tyre is more expensive than imported tyre.

Somehow, Malaysian is also very poor in economy. Take this for example, a rise in sugar price from RM1.70 to RM1.80 per KG will also increase the price of drink by RM0.10 per glass. A rise in flour price from RM1.50 to RM1.60 per KG will also increase the price of roti canai by RM0.10 per piece. Basically, for the case of sugar, the trader will break even on the rise of sugar price when he sell the 1st glass of drink !!!

Coming back to East Malaysian issue of pays dearly for goods, both Members of Parliament from Sabah and Sarawak also insisted there is no problem in the state and no problem ever existed between the states and the federal government. Those MPs and the state government preferred to keep mum even on petty issue like different in prices in subsidized items and other goods which in fact is burdening the rakyat in East Malaysia.

Those MPs wouldn't feel the different because they can afford it in addition to all thing free, given by the government and their business partners.

Related posts:
* The Dayak pay dearer for rice
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Source: thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/25/nation/21359002&sec=nation (May 25, 2008)

Standardising prices of subsidised goods nationwide

By MARTIN CARVALHO and PAUL CHOO

MALACCA: The Federal Government will standardise the prices of subsidised goods throughout the country next month, following grouses raised by consumers in Sabah and Sarawak over price discrepancies.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would make the announcement during his visit to Sabah early next month.

“For example, Bintulu produces gas, yet the price of gas in peninsular Malaysia is cheaper.

“This certainly makes the people of Bintulu angry because they can see the gas refinery yet pay higher prices for gas,” he told reporters after attending a forum and dialogue session with consumers on the rising prices of goods and cost of living at MITC in Ayer Keroh, near here, yesterday.

He added that this was also true for the price of cooking oil in Sarawak and Sabah.

Later, over a telephone interview, he assured Malaysians that there would be no increase in petrol prices at least until September, although Indonesia had raised fuel prices by 30% in the wake of spiralling global crude oil prices.

He said the move was to provide ample time for the special committee, led by the Finance Ministry, to evaluate the proposed subsidy management system, under which only deserving groups would be entitled to the subsidies.

Shahrir said a decision would be made by September on the various proposals as to how petrol ought to be subsidised.

“The situation is like this – at this moment all motorists are subsidised at the point of sale, meaning whenever they go to the petrol station and fill up their tank.

“What we are looking at now is how to provide these subsidies only to deserving groups.

“It could be via a special card registration method, using the MyKad or even through a car ownership basis,’’ he said.

“A decision will be made in September.’’

The world price of crude petroleum has hit US$135 per barrel.

So sad and discriminating. The Dayak in the interior of Sarawak pay dearer for rice as compared to those rice price in Kuching and other major towns in Sarawak.

Over the years, the Dayak communities has reduce their padi farming and opt to migrate to major towns in search for quick cash. Instead of being padi producers, the Dayak are becoming padi consumers just like other race.

The sorry part is that those Dayak in the longhouses pay more for the rice and the authority including Domestic Trade ministry is not doing anything about it. The Dayak leaders prefer to stay silent on this matter for they thought if they complaint at the federal level, Badawi might brand them as disloyal MPs or ungrateful MPs.







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Source: thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/21/nation/20080521143324&sec=nation (May 21, 2008)

Rice price up by RM1.50 per kg in rural Sarawak

By Stephen Then

MIRI: The price of local rice in some rural villages in Sarawak has shot up by as much as RM1.50 per kg - three times the hike as compared to urban areas.

Although Bernas increased the price of rice by only 50 cents per kg, rice is being sold at RM 1.50 per kg in rural areas like Marudi, about 200km from here.

Rural folk, most of whom are low-income earners lodged complaints with Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) about the unreasonable increase.

SAM's field officer for Sarawak, Jok Jau Evong, said these have to fork out between RM1 to RM1.50 more for one kg of local rice.

Jok said some traders in remote towns and villages were even selling rice at RM3.50 per kg now, compared to the previous price of RM2 per kg.

Traders who source rice supply from cities and towns claim that they have to pay higher transportation costs to ferry the rice to rural destinations.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, said the state government would leave it to Bernas to sort out the price issue.

"The most important thing is to ensure enough supply of rice for all," he said.

Dr Chan, who is State Agriculture Modernisation Minister, said Sarawak had been importing rice to shore up the present stock for the state's 2.5 million people.

The existing supply can last for the next three months at least, he added.