BUTTERWORTH: The Penang branch of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) has uncovered the activities of a wholesaler of subsidised cooking oil, believed to have misappropriated and sold the goods to the industry for profit, during a raid on a house in Taman Seri Murni here today.
The preliminary inspection also found that the man also sold the subsidised cooking oil mixed with dyes and fragrances to the public for prayer use.
State KPDNHEP enforcement chief, A. Mogan, said that a team of four enforcement officers managed to uncover the irregularities after conducting intelligence for the past five days, based on a public tip-off, before raiding the double-storey terrace house at 1 pm today.
“A team of four enforcement officers, conducting intelligence by following a lorry driven by a man from a subsidised cooking oil packet wholesaler, to the house in Taman Seri Murni.
“During the raid, the lorry was parked at the back of the terrace house and a local man, in his 50s, was at the cargo section of the vehicle in the midst of transferring subsidised cooking oil into barrels, before being sold to the industry,” he told reporters at the scene here today.
Mogan said that an inspection of the lorry found 272 kilogrammes (kg) of subsidised cooking oil (in packets) and 952 kg of subsidised cooking oil that had been transferred into industrial barrels.
The team also found 340 kg of subsidised cooking oil packets stored in a room in the house, which was believed to be used as a place for the man to transfer the subsidised cooking oil to industrial barrels.
Further investigation found that the man had a wholesale licence for controlled goods, with permission for him to obtain cooking oil from the cooking oil packaging place and subsequently send it directly to customers.
“However, he has misused the licence and misappropriated controlled items before selling them to the industry, because he was able to make a more lucrative profit,” he said, adding that further investigations were still underway.
Mogan said that each 1kg packet of subsidised cooking oil cost RM2.50 and the man sold it to the industry and the public at RM6 to RM8 each.
The man was also believed to have been carrying out these activities for the past few months, and had been more active since July 1 following the abolishment of subsidies for cooking oil in bottles of two, three and five kg.
“We seized a total of 1,564 kg of subsidised cooking oil, worth RM3,910, and we also seized the lorry worth RM105,000. The man was detained for investigation under the Control of Supplies Act 1951, and the case will be investigated under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001,” he said.-Bernama