The price will be fixed on a monthly basis, he said. Each month’s ceiling price would be calculated based on the previous month’s price of crude palm oil, Bernama reported.

When a new price of crude palm oil is announced by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) on the first of every month, it would be used as a benchmark to determine the retail ceiling price of cooking oil that is not subsidised.

He added that the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry had negotiated with industry leaders so that the ceiling prices would follow a certain schedule, to ensure that sufficient profit margins were maintained.

“This month, MPOB announced that last month’s average price of palm oil was RM4,063 per metric tonne,” he said, adding that the decision to set RM34.70 as the ceiling price was made based on this figure.

The government removed subsidies on bottled cooking oil on July 1 but instituted price controls. Before July 1, a maximum price of RM29.70 was set on 5kg bottles, as well as RM6.70 (1kg), RM12.70 (2kg) and RM18.70 (3kg).

Government subsidies are provided for cooking oil in 1kg polybags, with an allocation of some RM4 billion for 2022.

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