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‘Regular monitoring on Bintulu night market to ensure traders comply with regulations’
Posted on : 28 Aug 2017  Source of News: The Borneo Post
 

BINTULU: The enforcement unit of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC) will continue to conduct regular inspection and monitoring on the town’s famous night market.

In this regard, the ministry’s chief enforcement officer for Sarawak, Abdul Hafidz Abdul Rahim acknowledged the function of the night market as the key place where consumers could obtain daily essential goods, especially the raw materials, at cheaper prices.

As such, the regular inspection and monitoring by his men would ensure that the traders would not take advantage of the huge crowd by raising the prices of good indiscriminately especially during special occasions.

“The Bintulu night market is one of many places that attract huge crowds comprising not only the locals but also visitors from outside this division.

“The government is very concerned about rising cost of living affecting the people.

“Seeing that the night market is an alternative introduced by the local authorities for the consumers to buy goods, especially the raw materials like vegetables, at lower prices, we would like to maintain it that way,” he told reporters after the joint operation with the enforcement unit of Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) at the night market here on Sunday.

Abdul Hafidz led the inspection, which ran from 7pm to 9pm, where he was assisted by MDTCC Bintulu chief Salihin Den and 50 enforcement personnel – five of them were from BDA under their chief Awang Mohadir Awang Bujang.

Abdul Hafidz, who is also MDTCC Sarawak deputy director, said this joint operation was part of the collaboration with the relevant agencies aimed at ensuring that the traders would fully comply with the rules and regulations.

“This is also part of our continuous integrated operations in line with the state-level National Day celebration in Bintulu, where we expect to host thousands of people, the majority of whom would be visitors.

“We do not want the traders to take advantage of the huge crowds by increasing prices of goods. We also do not want them to commit other offences – the government is looking at this matter seriously to ensure that the consumer’s rights are protected,” he said.

On the Sunday night inspection, Abdul Hafidz was satisfied with the level of compliance among the traders at the night market.

“It is very important for them to clearly display the price tags,” he stressed.

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