Price control scheme gets good cooperation from traders

KUALA LUMPUR Dec 3 - The most recent round of price controls during the Hari Raya festive season has been a success with prices of goods being stabilised, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Dr Sulaiman Mahbob said here Wednesday.

Overall, traders had complied with the ceiling prices set although some of them were even lower than usual prices, he said, adding that the Ministry was satisfied and thanked the traders for upholding the interests of consumers.

Many traders had also displayed prices lower than the ceiling and supply of all the controlled goods was found to be sufficient, he said after the Ministry's weekly meeting here Wednesday.

He said there were 19 cases of traders selling above the ceiling prices compared to 21 during the same period last year.

Dr Sulaiman said cooperation from the public in carrying out volunteer checks also helped the Ministry to implement the scheme which, he said, had met with public approval based on the lack of complaints.

In another development in IPOH, the Perak Enforcement Division of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has discovered a novel sales tactic by pirated video compact disc (VCD) traders here who stick the VCD covers onto the pages of a magazine to avoid detection.

Its director, Mohd Khalis Kasim, said the method was discovered following the arrest of a woman during an operation at a night market in Taman SPPK here at 8.45 pm Tuesday.

He said the VCD covers, which were pasted in the magazine, also had serial numbers and interested buyers needed only to mention the numbers to the trader for a copy of the pirated VCD.

"The 45-year-old woman was detained while walking to and fro with a handbag and the magazine. In the woman's handbag, we found more than 20 pirated VCDs. The value of the goods is about RM700," he said here today.

Licenced VCD traders in the city were also using such magazines to advertise pirated VCDs, which they procured from other sources, he said, adding that this was a new method in Ipoh.

Mohd Khalis said two men, who were selling pirated VCDs from vans, were also detained in separate raids in Jalan Yau Tet Chin Tuesday night.

"The first man was detained in a 9 pm operation and inside the van were 4,750 pirated VCDs. The second man was detained 15 minutes later with 1,348 pirated VCDs. The seized items, including the vans, are worth a total of RM42,500," he said.

He said the trio had been remanded for three days for investigations under Section 41(1)(d) of the Copyright Act 1987 (Amendment 2003) for possession of pirated goods.

The offence carries a maximum five-year jail term or a RM50,000 fine, or both, for each copy of the pirated goods, upon conviction.