Category: Financial Literacy EN

Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) urges the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living to conduct checks and take action against wet market traders using inaccurate mechanical weighing scales (with dial indicators on both sides of the machine) to short-weigh consumers. Our recent survey at all the wet markets in Penang showed that some of the weighing scales have their calibration...

“Malaysia's Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim retabled Budget 2023 last Friday on the 24th of February, after the first tabling in October 2022 by the previous Ismail Sabri administration was thrown out, due to parliament being dissolved. “With a new unity government at the helm, there are significant changes to what was initially tabled, with the newly...

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) calls on the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living to enforce the Price Control Act 1946 Amendment 1973, Section 8 (1) which requires traders to display price tags on goods that are meant for sale. Our routine survey around Penang Island showed that many traders are blatantly flouting the Price Control Act. The surveys covered food stalls, wet...

Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) welcomes the investigation by SPRM into the secret accounts in tax havens operated by Malaysians, as revealed in the Pandora Papers. The investigation should also include Malaysian individuals and companies named in the earlier 2015 Panama Papers and 2016 Paradise Papers. In 2015, the Panama Papers revealed that 2,300 Malaysian individuals and entities were...

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) welcomes the government's announcement of a plan to implement targeted fuel subsidies for those in the Below 40 (B40) group. We urge the government to speed up the implementation because the war in Ukraine is not likely to end soon and on contrary to what some consumers may think, the subsidy comes from taxpayers. It is, therefore, not advantageous to...

CAP is shocked that the Cabinet had decided to ratify the controversial Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) even as parliamentarians prepared to debate this in the ongoing Dewan Rakyat sitting. Our study of the latest cost-benefit analysis (CBA) commissioned by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) confirms...

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) had cautioned about the government several times about allowing the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members to withdraw their savings through i-Lestari and i-Sinar in 2020, i-Citra in July 2021, and a special withdrawal in March 2022. However, it fell on deaf ears. EPF funds are meant for its members’ retirement and not for them to withdraw to tide over...

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) is concerned about the January to April 2022 bankruptcy statistics revealed recently are just the tip of the iceberg because of the Insolvency (Amendment) Act 2020 that took effect on 1 September 2021. With the amendment, a creditor may file for bankruptcy action against the debtor if the debt amounts to RM100,000. The bankruptcy threshold was RM50,000...