Deputy minister Rosol Wahid said one report was received in Putrajaya and two were lodged in Johor.

“The situation early this year was rather different compared with now. Many are complaining on social media that (cooking oil in) 5kg bottles are selling from RM25 to RM28 each compared with RM19 to RM22 earlier.

“However, the ministry is not treating this matter lightly and has gone to the ground to conduct inspections at the retail level to determine if there is profiteering.

“Subsequently, six notices under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011 were issued to traders to obtain further information on the price hike and to detect any element of profiteering,” he said.

Rosol, who is Hulu Terengganu MP, said this after handing out aid of RM500 each to 119 people including traders who were affected by Covid-19 at his office here today.

He said only a few brands of 5kg bottled cooking oil were found to have been sold above the regular prices at certain locations.

To a question, he said the ministry had no plans to control the price of bottled cooking oil as is being done for that in 1kg polybags (RM2.50) because price control is to help the lower-income group who mostly buy the polybag packs.

“The global price of crude palm oil has been experiencing a resurgence from June 2020 until now. It is not impossible that this has an impact on the price of bottled cooking oil in the market,” he said.

He said consumers could always opt for cooking oil in 1kg packets if they find bottled cooking oil expensive.