RM386 MILLION KR1M SPENDING NOT REASONABLE

                         

IN THE Budget 2013, East Malaysia will open 57 Kedai Rakyat 1-Malaysia (KR1M) with a cost of RM386 million which is about RM670,000 per shop. This amount allocated is actually much higher than the previous KR1M shops in the Budget 2012 for the 85 KR1M shops set up in Semenanjong with an allocation of RM 40 million which worked out to be RM470,000 per shop.

The KKMP Hiew King Cheu viewed this allocation as highly unreasonable and this KR1M shop is a direct competitor to take away the business and income of the local small business and sundry shop or kedai runcit.  

This KR1M has the government finance and capital support, and it is selling goods at very price would definitely 'slaughter' the existing small businesses. How can the Kedai Runcit survive? This will even affect the business of the supermarkets too.

The point is if the government is having the intention to help the people to save money, they should be thinking in line to subsidize and to reduce the prices of the essential commodities like sugar, rice, flour, powder milk, cooking oil, and other important daily needs.

The cost of living in Sabah and Sarawak is increasing fast, and this has contributed to hardship among the people. The average wage earners can no longer sustain the high cost of living. The inflation in the state came faster than anticipated, but the income remained low. What is the government going to do about it, or rather the government is helpless and hopeless in managing the inflation and upbringing the economy in the state?

The Sabah State government has done little to fight for the well being of the people, and this can be seen in the rising price of the commodities and essential items in Sabah. A very simple example is the fuel price and cooking oil. We produces huge quantity of crude oil and crude palm oil, and yet we pay high prices on the fuel and cooking oil. The state government should have fought for a higher subsidies for Sabah from the federal government to allow the Sabahan to enjoy the benefits.

The long term solution to resolve the existing price gap between the east and west must be tackled by the Sabah government. They should not continue to keep silence on the issue while the Sabahan continue to pay high prices. A housewife told the MP Hiew that when she goes to do shopping nowadays, she couldn't get much with her RM200. That shows how expensive the daily essentials are.

It is the government who has to control the prices of goods and not by spending huge amount of tax-payer's money to open up KR1M shops to "kill" the earnings of the existing small businesses and Kedai Runcit. Is this for the interest of the people, or someone may get rich in between?