SUNDRY shop owners are crying foul over City Hall’s new guidelines, which proposes to restrict the sale of liquor on their premises.

They said the rules, effective next October, were unnecessary and added to their financial burden.

They said their businesses had been suffering losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new ruling disallows liquor sale in convenience stores, Chinese medicine halls and sundry and grocery shops. Pure and adulterated alcohol in traditional medicine is exempt while beer is still allowed to be sold on these premises but only from 7am to 9pm but it must be placed separately from other beverages.

Rama, who owns Sona Mini Mart, said the new guidelines would strangle businesses and affect the economy.

“Businesses are struggling due to the pandemic and DBKL comes up with these new guidelines – not to help us but which suffocate us.

“If this ruling proceeds, the impact is not only on the businesses but will also affect the country as we would need to review our operations to probably reduce workers or even shut down. 

“They must remember that alcohol sale also contributes to the government’s revenue and it’s a huge chunk,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Rama questioned DBKL’s action against the sale of alcohol but not cigarettes, which he deems to be more harmful.

“I agree alcohol can be a threat to health but smoking is even worse. If drinking causes harm to others, smoking makes non-smokers passive smokers.

“So will DBKL also ban the sale of cigarettes on our premises too?

“Compare the number of those drinking and smoking. There are more smokers,” said Rama, who has been in the sundry shop business for more than 10 years.

DBKL last week announced it would no longer renew the liquor licences of sundry shops, convenience stores and Chinese medical halls starting October 1.

Raju, 52, who runs a sundry shop in KL, questioned the restriction on when beer could be sold.

“Placing beers separately is fine, no sale of liquor near schools, places of worship and all that is fine too, but why put time restrictions on the sale of beer? Already we are closing our shops early due to Covid-19 and DBKL is trying to make this the norm.

“Most of my customers are social drinkers and they like to buy a few cans of beer after work.

“With this new ruling, they won’t be able to do that. It’s a loss of business,” he said.

KL is not Kelantan

Another sundry shop owner, who wished to be known as Shan, blamed the new guidelines on the Federal Territories minister whom he said was trying to turn Kuala Lumpur into Kelantan.

He said the changes were proposed after Annuar Musa became the FT minister.

“When we have a minister who is from Kelantan, this is what happens. Now they ban liquor, later they will ban everything.

“He’s probably taking advice from his PAS allies who are now in the federal government.

“They must understand, this is not Kelantan, this is Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. All these restrictions, they’re just making us backward,” said Shan, whose family owns a several sundry shops in KL and Selangor.

Shan said the authorities must consult the stakeholders before rolling out such restrictions.

Last month, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali called for the sale of alcohol to be controlled and gambling banned.

He said these should be the goals now that his Islamist party PAS is in government.

On Tuesday, DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai said the new ruling violated the constitutional rights of non-Muslims.

The Cheras MP added that the rule was “anti-business”, and that it victimised law-abiding and tax-paying business owners.

Tan said DAP will collect the objections from the affected stakeholders.

Starting December 15, production, sale and consumption of “samsu”, the generic catch-all for cheap liquor, is illegal in Kuala Lumpur.

The sundry shop owners interviewed by The Malaysian Insight agreed samsu should be banned as it was not safe to drink.

They said foreign workers used to buy samsu but were now drinking beer instead.

In 2018, more than 20 people were reported dead and more than a dozen were hospitalised due to alcohol poisoning.

It was reported that these people had drunk methanol, a toxic alcohol that is used as a solvent, pesticide, and alternative fuel source. – November 21, 2020.