He said the previous approach to selling food items for the lower income group had failed as the goods were not up to mark.

“Under KR1M, the aim was to sell items at cheaper levels, but the feedback we received was that the items were not cheap and the quality was substandard.”

Items at the rebranded outlets under Pakatan Harapan (PH), however, would be sold at reasonable prices as they would be controlled by market forces, he said in reply to Salim Sharif (BN-Jempol).

He added that the government would act as a negotiator between the outlets and manufacturers.

KR1M outlets or 1Malaysia grocery stores were an initiative by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government to assist the lower income group who were burdened by the rising prices of food items.

Chong said KR1M operations were shut down in October last year as they had become too costly to maintain.

The programme was rebranded as KR1M 2.0 in February this year, and two strategic partners appointed to run the programme.

Chong said PH’s initiative would not be under KR1M 2.0, adding that the name would be changed.

“Under KR1M, the government gave funds to produce their own goods, but this was not effective.

“Under our new initiative, the government will act as a negotiator with strategic partners,” he said, adding that they would try and get goods for as cheap as possible to ensure that they could be sold at reasonable prices.