PUTRAJAYA’S Menu Rahmah initiative is slowly dying as operators of restaurants and stall operators struggle to deal with the price hikes of raw goods and shortage of essential ingredients.

They said it was difficult to continue with the affordable food initiative, which was launched eight months ago, in the current economic climate and have no choice but to withdraw from it.

Kuala Lumpur Bumiputera Traders and Hawkers Association president Muhamad Baba Kutty said their members have pulled out from the initiative as they can no longer afford it.

“The government needs to tackle this issue by getting more suppliers of rice, cooking oil, sugar and other items and look into the pricing of raw ingredients.

“All these items are now costly. We are also finding it difficult to get stock.

“It’s a good initiative by the government, but how can we sustain with rising prices?” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Menu Rahmah is the government’s initiative to help reduce the cost of living, especially for those in need of nutritionally balanced meals, at a price of RM5 and below.

Former domestic trade and cost of living minister Salahuddin Ayub launched the initiative on January 31 and a total of 15,000 food outlets participated in this initiative.

Muhamad said in Kuala Lumpur there are about 65,000 hawkers of all races selling a variety of food and their association has more than 3,000 members.

“Our members who have been providing Menu Rahmah have totally stopped.

“They cannot afford to do it anymore. It looks like it has totally faded away.”

He also said all hawkers are suffering because they cannot increase their prices.

“Business is still the same, customers are coming but their overheads have gone up as the price of goods is high.

“Their profit margin is low. With the income they are getting they still have to take care of their families.”

He also questioned the Harga Rahmah (Rahmah sales) programme by the government, which is selling goods at cheap prices.

“They have the stock and are selling the goods at cheaper prices, but when we go to the supermarkets there is no rice, sugar or cooking oil.

“So, where are they (the government) getting the stock from?

The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry initiated the Rahmah sales in January and has grossed RM52 million in sales.

Deputy Minister Fuziah Salleh said it involved 118 parliamentary constituencies with the sale of goods that were sold up to 30% off the market price.

Malaysian Indian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Jawahar Ali Taib Khan said they will continue the Menu Rahmah initiative for now as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) at their 22 outlets nationwide.

“We are not making any profit but doing it as part of our CSR programme since we can afford it for now.

“We will try our best, but we also don’t know how long we can last. We will try to sustain until the end of the year

“But if prices of goods keep going up then we might stop.”

He said the government has to come up with policies on how to deal with this issue as Menu Rahmah is not a long-term solution.

“Not everyone can do it. Maybe when it first started the price of goods was reasonable but now it is not.”

Jawahar said the number of members who have been providing it has also dropped.

“They have to think about rental, staff salaries, price of goods and others.”

He said the association has 12,000 outlets nationwide with 4,500 members.

“We know some people still need it (Menu Rahmah). So, we hope the government is giving serious thought to the issues of available stock and the price of goods,” Jawahar added. – September 29, 2023.