KUCHING: The Ministery of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs here seized items worth RM3.4 million while carrying out enforcement in Sarawak last year, said its state deputy director Mohd Khalis Kassim.

He said the bulk of the offences came from enforcing the Weight and Measures Act 1972 which accounted for 194 cases out of total 680 cases.

“This is followed by the Price Control Act 1946 with 172 cases and Trade Descriptions Act 1972 with 148 cases. Generally, there is a slight drop in total offences committed in 2008 compared to 2007 and this is particularly obvious in the Copyrights Act 1987,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Khalis said many hawkers and shopkeepers failed to send their weighing machines for the annual reverification at the Metrology Corporation of Malaysia (MCM) and thus, resulted in the high number of offences under the Weight and Measures Act 1972.

“They have to send their weighing equipment to MCM for accuracy test once in 12 months,” he said.

He explained that traders who failed to display prices of goods would be compounded under the Price Control Act 1946, while those compounded under the Trade Descriptions Act 1972 were because they sold imitation goods and failed to notify the department a week before holding cheap sale.

Other offences committed were those under the Copyrights Act 1987 (57), Control and Supplies Act 1961 (53), Consumers Protection Act 1999 (52), Direct Selling Act 1993 (three) and Hire Purchase Act 1967 (one), he said.

“We have the Optical Disc Act 2000 but no cases so far,” he added.

Khalis said total value of items seized was RM3,399,566.88 from 680 cases while compounds collected amounted to RM85,330.

“Miri and Kuching have higher number of cases with 201 and 186 cases respectively because these are where traders are mostly concentrated,” he said.

He added that consumers should be more discerning and careful with their purchases so that they would not fall prey to unscrupulous businessmen and other types of scams such as ‘scratch and win’ and dubious transaction through the Internet.

Members of the public can inform or lodge reports to the ministry at its hotline number 1800-886-800, email e-aduan@kpdnhep.gov.my or SMS to 32255.