THE ceiling price for 5kg bottled cooking oil has been capped at RM34.70 for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan effective August 8, similar to the Peninsular Malaysia rate.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said the mechanism to determine the ceiling price is based on the simulated sales price of pure cooking oil at the retail level, taking into consideration current developments on crude palm oil (CPO) in global markets.

“However, the decision on the ceiling price also took into account several contingency costs, including logistics, as well as situations faced by some retailers to exhaust their supply of pure cooking oil bought at old prices,” he said in a statement today.

Nanta said the decision on the monthly ceiling price for unsubsidised cooking oil is based on the previous month’s average global price of a metric ton of CPO, and was agreed upon at the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation meeting yesterday.

“The average monthly CPO price is determined by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry on the first of every month followed by the announcement of the ceiling price of bottled cooking oil for the month, effective from the eighth of the current month till the seventh of the following month,” he said. 

Task force chairman Annuar Musa had announced yesterday that 5kg bottled cooking oil would be sold at RM34.70 this month effective August 8, and that the rate only applied to Peninsular Malaysia. 

Nanta said the ban on unsubsidised pure cooking oil in all forms of polybags was gazetted yesterday to avoid confusion among consumers and exporters and to improve effectiveness of monitoring to reduce leakages. – Bernama, August 2, 2022.