He said the claim by the hypermarket firm’s managing director Ameer Ali Mydin that “people did not have the money” to spend was a sad truth that the government must accept.
He said low-income earners were worst hit, despite rosy economic growth statistics.
He said it was startling to see Ameer citing price hikes in items such as ikan kembung hitam (Indian mackerel, up by 19.5%), cabbage (29%), canned sardines (30.6%) and chilli sauce (38.8%).
“These are items usually purchased by low-wage earners,” Lim, who is DAP secretary-general and Pakatan Harapan (PH) deputy president, said.
“While the federal government has thumped its chest over an improved economy, the regular rakyat (people) do not feel it. They do not have enough money to spend,” he said.
“We want the government to come up with measures to fix this urgently. This is a big issue,” he told reporters at Komtar here today.
Lim said PH’s solution was to abolish the goods and services tax (GST), while the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) would likely maintain or even increase the tax rate of 6% in the near future.
In an interview with BFM 89.9 radio station last week, Ameer said hypermarkets and supermarkets were seeing negative growth.
He said despite the economy doing well, consumer spending appeared to be weak.
Ameer said based on Mydin’s internal data, prices of goods had risen by 14% to 15%.
BN leaders said Ameer’s comment was exaggerated as hypermarkets today were losing business while smaller retail outlets were not.
BN strategic communications deputy director Eric See-To said smaller grocery stores were the trend now, with many chain grocers like 99Speedmart and Jaya Grocer growing rapidly.
He said it was unfair to draw conclusions on the overall health of Malaysia’s economy based on the performance of just one side of the retail industry.
Recently, Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said he was aware of the concerns raised, adding that it was unfair to a cast blanket assumption on cost of living as it varied among different people.
“There are certain things that we can protect and certain things that are out of our control,” he said.
“The government is able to control the price of rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil, but other products are subject to the open market policy where the theory of supply and demand comes into play,” he said.