As such, Kimma Youth leader leader Harisrajudin Alaudin supported the recent statement made by his president, Syed Ibrahim Kader, on the matter.

He also clarified that his president never said food prices would definitely increase if the levy hike was enforced.

“He only said food prices may increase, not that it will definitely go up. ‘May’ and ‘will’ are two different words,” he said.

He said this in the wake of a statement by the Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Noorul Hassan Saul Hameed that Kimma was merely raising the levy increase issue to gain political mileage.

Presma also said Kimma had only 10 per cent support of the Indian-Muslim community and was desperate to gain more support by politicising the issue.

Harisrajudin said that Kimma’s stance on the levy reflected the collective voice of restaurant operators and pointed out that its protest had been heard by the government which had decided to put off the levy until further discussions with the affected industry players.

He regretted the unjustified comments by Presma and asked it to provide evidence that Kimma only had 10 per cent support from the community.

He advised Presma to confine itself to matters involving its members and not attack Kimma or its leadership.