A member of parliament has asked if prime minister and National Action Council on Cost of Living (Naccol) chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been supplied with the correct information on the stock and supply of local white rice in the country.
In an interview with the New Straits Times, Naccol food cluster task force chairman Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal raised the question after saying his team learned of the real situation three days ago.
He said checks by the task force's monitoring team at 30 locations in the peninsula found that there were no stocks of local white rice in the market.
"It is unfortunate that the prime minister had to take the blame and be reprimanded for this, when the issue is also about whether the officers from the authorities responsible had provided him with accurate information or otherwise during the Naccol meeting.
"During one of the Naccol meetings, the padi and rice control director-general told the prime minister that rice stocks are available and enough in the market, but a representative from a hypermarket said otherwise.
"This means that the officer responsible is not providing the right information to the prime minister. This situation has made the issue more complicated," said Syed Abu Hussin, who is Bukit Gantang MP.
He said he wanted the director-general of the Padi and Rice Control Division to be held responsible for the situation relating to the supply of local white rice.
"If the enforcement agencies responsible do their job accordingly, consumers will likely still enjoy buying white rice at RM20 (per pack). But over the past six months, people have had to fork out more money to buy a packet of rice," he said.
Syed Abu Hussin also stood by his proposal for the proposed Madani white rice to be sold at RM30 for a 10kg packet.
The proposal, he said, was made after taking into consideration the interest and views of all stakeholders, including millers and padi farmers, as well as consumers.
He claimed that rice millers had expressed willingness to buy padi at RM1,500 per metric tonne, which was RM200 more than the ceiling price.
"I have asked four major rice millers in the country about my proposal (for a pack of 10kg white rice to be sold at RM30).
"These rice millers said that they are willing to buy padi at RM1,500 per metric tonne from farmers."
Syed Abu Hussin said he was also aware of the grouses by padi farmers for the government to increase the ceiling price of padi to RM1,700 per metric tonne.
"The government, at present, is subsidising RM500 per metric tonne.
"My proposal is that if we want to create a win-win situation for farmers without burdening consumers, perhaps the government could increase the amount of subsidy by another RM200 (per metric tonne)," he said.