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KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has ordered the Starfresh and Water Funs bottled drinking water to be taken off the shelves after they were found to be contaminated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, commonly found in faeces, water, soil and sewage.The ministry has also temporarily suspended the licence of the manufacturer’s plant effective June 28.Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Food Safety and Quality Division’s inspections at the factory found that food safety assurance programmes were not implemented effectively.“The processing and production activities for commercial purposes are strictly prohibited and the factory has been ordered to carry out corrective action during the suspension of the licence,” he said in a statement here today.

Earlier, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) was reported to have ordered a recall of Starfresh bottled water after they were found to be contaminated by the same bacteria, involving the 500ml and 1500ml bottles with expiry dates of May 11, 2021, and May 13, 2021, respectively.Dr Noor Hisham said the analysis carried out on the Starfresh brand exported to Singapore and the Water Funs brand sold in the local market found that both brands did not comply with the Food Act 1983 and the Food Regulations 1985.He said the factory would also voluntarily recall other brands it produced, including Iceberg, Sukahati, Ro Fina, Dixy Green and Dixy Blue. — Bernama

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KUALA LUMPUR: Pelaksanaan cukai ke atas minuman bergula bermula hari ini, dapat membantu kerajaan mengurangkan kos perubatan berikutan pengambilan gula yang berlebihan dalam kalangan rakyat.Presiden Persatuan Akauntan Percukaian Malaysia (MATA), Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, berkata duti eksais sedia ada yang dikenakan seperti ke atas rokok dan arak bertujuan mengelak rakyat daripada menghadapi masalah kesihatan.“Kerajaan tidak akan mendapat banyak hasil daripada pengeluar kerana mana-mana negara yang memperkenalkan cukai soda, pengeluar akan menukar produk mereka supaya dapat menghasilkan produk yang dapat mengelak daripada membayar cukai gula.“Rakyat perlu faham, mereka (kerajaan) telah menimbang tara dan kerajaan sudah memberi banyak masa kepada komuniti perniagaan untuk menyesuaikan diri dan mengambil peluang untuk menyusun strategi daripada segi produk dan cara pengeluaran.

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PETALING JAYA: Licensed importers of sweetened beverages must come up with a letter of undertaking and also submit lab reports, says the Customs Department.If the total sugar content of their drinks exceeds the threshold or if the reports are not submitted, the importers will need to make payment of the duties involved.The lab reports are compulsory for exempted goods but importers are granted postponement from submitting the lab reports from July 1 to Aug 31.These are among the procedures spelt out by the Customs Department in the implementation of the excise tax on sugary beverages during the two month transition period.

The import of sugary drinks must be declared in Form K1 (declaration of goods imported) just like other imported products.According to the Customs Department, the lab reports will need to be submitted within 30 days from the date of the K1 clearance.For domestic sales of dutiable sugary drinks, licensed manufacturers will use the Excise Form No.7 and the declaration will be for a period of one calendar month.“The declaration needs to be made no later than the last date of the following month.“Declaration for the local sales of products exempted from the duty will also use the Excise Form No.7,” it said.

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PASIR GUDANG : The Department of Environment (DOE) in Johor has initiated investigation on at least 38 industrial factories operating in Pasir Gudang, for non-compliance and flouting the department’s laws, following the recent toxic fume pollution here.State Health, Culture and Heritage Committee chairman Mohd Khuzzan Abu Bakar said action taken included the issuing of compounds to 37 factory operators who had failed to adhere to the department’s procedures under the Environmental Quality Act 1974.“Of the total, 27 compounds were issued for unscheduled waste disposal, 10 were for industrial effluents and three notices to stop work and notice of demand, each were also issued to six of them.“This is part of our enforcement to crackdown on factories which did not comply with the existing act,” he said.

Khuzzan said the air quality and pollution index reading at the affected site showed no signs of pollution.“Air quality reading in the Pasir Gudang area is at a good level,” he said, adding police would also continue to step up security and conduct road checks while DOE carried out enforcement against errant factory owners.He also confirmed that 100 tonnes of chemical waste had been shipped out of the site for proper disposal.

 

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REFERRING to the report “Jomo: Lack of political commitment for RE (renewable energy) agenda in Malaysia” (TheStarOnline, June 25, there is actually no issue of political will by the Pakatan Harapan government in setting the right tone via policies to promote the uptake of renewable energy.The government is committed to fulfilling its promise in the Pakatan manifesto to increase the installed capacity of renewable energy (excluding large hydro schemes) from 2% in 2018 to 20% by the year 2025. It must be noted that this target is significantly higher than the one set by the previous administration (13% by 2030).

In October 2018, Energy, Science, Technology, Envi­ronment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin announced the new Net Energy Metering on a one-to-one basis, making the proposition of installing rooftop solar far more financially attractive. This is arguably the most progressive solar policy in South-East Asia.Liberalising the electricity supply industry was the right decision for solar energy companies to not only supply and install solar panels but also to just sell solar energy directly to the consumer. This enables commercial and industrial premises to avoid the heavy capex of buying the solar system and instead enjoy green renewable energy with zero upfront cost.

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PUTRAJAYA: Kerajaan sedang merangka Indeks Kos Sara Hidup sebagai pelengkap kepada Indeks Harga Pengguna (IHP), kata Menteri Kewangan, Lim Guan Eng.Beliau berkata, indeks baharu itu akan menentukan minimum kos sara hidup yang diperlukan bagi seorang individu."Ia (Indeks Kos Sara Hidup) juga akan membantu kerajaan membuat dasar yang lebih tepat dalam menangani kos sara hidup yang dihadapi rakyat," katanya pada Konsultasi Belanjawan 2020 di sini hari ini.Hadir sama, Timbalan Menteri Kewangan, Datuk Ir Amiruddin Hamzah dan Ketua Setiausaha Perbendaharaan, Datuk Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir.Guan Eng berkata, kerajaan juga menangani kos sara hidup dengan mengekang tingkah laku monopoli."Kerajaan aktif dalam menguruskan tekanan kos sara hidup yang dihadapi rakyat.

"Kadar inflasi bagi Mac, April dan Mei 2019 adalah rendah dan stabil 0.2 peratus, sekali gus membuktikan kejayaan kerajaan dalam memeriksa tekanan harga," katanya.Selain itu, Guan Eng berkata, kerajaan juga sedang menilai dan merangka pelan baharu bagi 500,000 golongan muda Malaysia mendapatkan pekerjaan menerusi pelbagai program.Beliau berkata, ia inisiatif penting sejak kadar pengangguran belia meningkat kepada 10.9 peratus pada 2018 berbanding 9.9 peratus pada 2011."Kadar itu lebih tinggi berbanding kadar pengangguran kebangsaan 3.4 peratus," katanya.Majlis Konsultasi dengan tema Kemakmuran Bersama: Menjana Pertumbuhan Inklusif yang Mampan ke Arah Ekonomi Berpendapatan Tinggi itu adalah platform interaksi antara kerajaan dan sektor awam, swasta serta pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) untuk memberi pandangan dan maklum balas terhadap cabaran semasa serta langkah bagi menanganinya.

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It is heartening to finally see that the Transport Minster promoting the use of the bus system. While he has emphasised the need for consumers to use the bus system to reduce subsidies, the public transport in an urban system is far more critical than that.In relation to cost of living, after food and housing expenses, transport makes up the third highest expenditure. Due to the inefficient and unreliable public transport currently, consumers are often forced to use their cars.  It is estimated that households spend about 20 to 30% of their disposal income on private transport – instalments, petrol, services, maintenance, road tax, insurance, tolls and parking charges. An efficient public transport would contribute substantial savings to the households.

The core of the public transport system is the bus system.  It is the “last mile” of the system – that is from home to office, or home to LRT station, or LRT station to the office. If the last mile of the public system is not reliable or worse not available, then consumers may have to use their private cars or taxis, which is often not affordable for low and middle income earners. Yet, the bus system has too often been ignored by policy makers.   Too often we are emphasising on LRTs and MRT’s but not on the last mile. Worse still both in major and small towns, many communities have no bus service thus forcing the purchase and use of private cars.For a public transport system to be popular, obviously it must be available. FOMCA urges the Ministry of Transport to undertake an audit of how extensive the current bus system is. We could even start in Seremban. Which are the housing areas which have access to buses and which of the communities have no buses plying their housing areas. A feasibility study can be undertaken to ensure a comprehensive bus system to ensure that all major housing areas are served by the bus system.

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Half of plastic supermarket packaging cannot be recycled, a study by Which? has found.Researchers analysed the packaging of 46 of the most popular own-brand items from leading supermarkets including Asda, M&S, Morrisons, and Waitrose.They found that only 52 per cent of the packaging - including cardboard, glass and plastics - could be easily put in household recycling bins.Morrisons was the worst offender, as 61 per cent of its packaging that Which? examined was not easily recyclable.The best supermarkets were Tesco and Waitrose - as only 40 per cent of their packaging could not be easily recycled.The study also found that 42 per cent of the total supermarket packaging was labelled either incorrectly or not at all, making it difficult for well-intentioned consumers and increasing the chances of it ending up in landfill.

Which? is calling on the government to make recycling labelling simple, clear and mandatory and ensure the necessary infrastructure is in place to make it easy for everyone to recycle.The consumer champion urged all the supermarkets to commit to ensuring a much greater proportion of their packaging is recyclable, rather than continuing to use environmentally unfriendly single-use, throwaway materials.

 The study also examined the quality of recycling labelling. Iceland had the worst record for labelling, with only 38 per cent of packaging examined by Which? was correctly labelled.The supermarket’s easy peeler oranges which use type of plastic netting that cannot be recycled were not labelled at all, investigators found.Of the other supermarkets, M&S had 43 per cent of their products labelled correctly, whilst Ocado had 44 per cent and Waitrose 47 per cent.Asda led the way, demonstrating that recycling labelling can be done well, with eight in 10 items of packaging that Which? experts looked at correctly labelled.Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?, said: “Our research shows there is a lot more supermarkets and manufacturers can do to banish single-use plastics and make sure any packaging they use is minimal, recyclable and correctly labelled, so that shoppers know exactly how they can recycle it.

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Nielsen Malaysia recently has conducted a study; ‘Nielsen Malaysia Sugar Tax Report (2019)’- a survey that involves 1,200 people from the ages of 18 to 64, across peninsular and East Malaysia."Eleven percent told us they will completely stop taking sugary drinks."“What we found is, Malaysians are actually very loyal when they like a specific brand.“However, 11 percent of them told us they will completely stop taking these sugary drinks. The rest of them claim they might reduce their consumption or switch to other cheaper brands."“It’s an interesting claim before the implementation of the tax. I’m curious to see if they do what they say. This is something we will follow up in the next few months. If 11 percent say they will stop drinking, that’s actually a big number,” says De Nard.

Malaysia is not the first country to introduce sweetened beverages tax to reduce sugar consumption among its people. Over 20 countries have implemented the tax and have shown a varying outcomes.“Three countries who have implemented with very distinctive results," says De Nard.Manufacturers in Saudi Arabia were able to adapt, they innovated and brought in new products“Firstly, Saudi Arabia. This country taxes 100 percent for energy drinks and 50 percent on carbonated drinks. It is a huge amount and the impact on the market was big as well- people stopped buying certain products. Manufacturers in Saudi Arabia were able to adapt, they innovated and brought in new products. It worked out quite nicely, actually. The results were significant.“Then, we studied Mexico. This country is very interesting because the Mexicans love sodas. They are actually at the top (globally) in terms of soda consumption. The Mexican government tried very hard to control this habit. They not only implement the tax but also forbid sugary drinks advertisements on television at certain time (of the day).

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THE Malaysian electricity industry has seen only a small increase in price over the past few years and that too has been limited to the industrial or commercial sector.The electricity price is based on a number of key factors such as usage or consumption (effects of climate change), demand and cost-to-serve. Yet the cost of electricity in Malaysia is still among the lowest in the world.By analysing the recent price changes in the Malaysian electricity sector and the price determining mechanism, then comparing the revenue in contrast to the per unit price on an international average, there would be a far clearer under­standing of the larger energy tariff landscape globally.The intent behind the implementation of incentive-based regulation (IBR) that has been practised globally is to incentivise power utility companies to improve efficiency, create stability in the electricity supply industry, increase transparency and offer competitively-priced tariffs.

Since 2014, Malaysia has put IBR mechanism in place as part of enhancing the electricity supply industry, making way for a more structured, transparent and informed way of tariff setting.This also takes into cognisance the huge requirement for capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) by the utilities for upgradation and modernisation in order to maintain the reliability and quality of electricity supply, even with growing demand.Let us approach each of these objectives one by one.

Reasonable tariff

Before embarking on meeting the objective of transparency and competitively priced tariffs, let us understand – so how do we set the price of electricity?The main objective of the IBR is to deliver efficient and reliable electricity supply at an efficient cost and reasonable tariff for its people.Tariff revision is carried out periodically and consistently by the Energy Commission, which has been mandated to do by the Government. In fact, the IBR also determines the revenue allowable for TNB for providing electricity.There are two components to the price for customers – a base tariff (the fixed amount) which is set at the beginning of each three-year regulatory period and has not increased since 2014, and the ICPT (Imbalance Cost Pass Through) which is a variable cost.

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