According to the second series of the 2015 Auditor-General’s (A-G) Report released today, five out of the 16 companies, with an approved quota of more than 500 tonnes per month, had lower paid-up capital than the limit set by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC). One of the five was in fact not eligible to be considered.
Previously, Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said cooking oil prices would be determined by market prices from this month.
Subsidies would only be maintained for cooking oil sold in 1kg packets, to be sold at RM2.50 each.
The A-G said the COSS per capita consumption quota of 2.5kg was high and not supported by any study of the actual needs of Malaysians.
Another weakness highlighted was that seven quota holders were given permission to appoint a third party to carry out packaging activities of cooking oil even though it was not in compliance with COSS’ standard operating procedures.
“Temporary packaging quota were given to 10 refineries and 8 packaging companies without complying with the SOP and it was prolonged between 9 and 12 months.
“As at April 2016, the temporary packaging quota approval had resulted in an excess maximum quota limit of between 64 and 464 tonnes per month.
“Hence, there was an increase in the government’s subsidy expenditure, estimated at RM2.92 million.”