THE increase in prices of food and drinks, especially in restaurants and hotels, is the main contributing factor to inflation, Rafizi Ramli said.

The economy minister, however, said that Malaysia could not become a “communist” nation, whereby the government regulates the prices of food sold at these premises. 

“Conceptually in the future, if the government manages to control inflation at a healthy rate but if that does not reflect the prices the people pay, then as a country and society, we will have problems. 

“This is unless we become a communist country. This means the government will regulate all prices of goods, all (food) prices, for example, rice with chicken and vegetables. 

“That will not happen because the government can only control and set the price of certain items used by many under the Price Control Act, which is the driving cause for the final cost.” 

Rafizi said consumers end up paying high prices at restaurants and hotels despite a decline in inflation rate last month, as well as the price stabilisation of raw materials and ingredients.

“People largely talk about the final price they pay for something. Because we buy prepared food at restaurants, stalls, we don’t bother to check if the prices of sugar, milk have increased or decreased. 

“We seem to judge the prices when paying for it, while all the statistics show there has already been a decrease or prices returning to normal rates.

“The price of a meal goes up when inflation rises but does not go down when inflation drops,” Rafizi said.

The Pandan lawmaker said that the people, as the end purchasers, end up paying almost three times more against the inflation rate. 

“For example, when the inflation was somewhere between 2% and 3% in 2021, restaurants ended up charging the consumers 7% more, which is almost three times higher than the inflation rate,” he said.

Rafizi also said that the government can only control the prices of some raw materials as it did before by capping prices and giving subsidies. 

“When the ceiling price is set, the government has to pay the supplier the price differential charged to consumers and the cost borne by the suppliers to ensure supply is not affected,” he said. – January 25, 2023.