[TERKINI] Harga Gula Malaysia Akan Naik Tidak Lama Lagi?

Kalau ditanya kepada sekumpulan doktor, adakah gula patut disubsidikan? Semestinya jawapannya tidak, apabila mereka “sibuk” bercerita soal kesihatan. Tetapi hakikatnya hari ini, gula merupakan salah satu keperluan yang terpenting dikalangan masyarakat kita hari ini. Cukuplah, kita melihat krisis kekurangan bekalan gula yang berlaku sebelum ini. Masyarakat terus sahaja “melatah”. Tiada gula, tiada hidangan teh tarik yang “kaw” setiap pagi.

Untuk masa sekarang ini sahaja, subsidi yang diberikan untuk gula menjangkau RM720 juta dan boleh mencapai ke angka RM1 billion tidak lama lagi disebabkan harga gula di luar sangat-sangat tinggi. Banyak bukan? Yang menjadi persoalannya sekarang, mengapa lesen AP untuk pengimportan gula ini hanya diberikan kepada sebilangan tauke-tauke besar seperti Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar dan juga orang terkaya di Malaysia iaitu Tan Sri Robert Kuok. Setakat hari ini, hanya 4 syarikat yang diberikan hak lesen AP untuk terus memonopoli “acara mengimport gula”.

Kenapa tidak membuka dan memberikan lebih banyak lesen mengimpot gula supaya timbulnya persaingan. Bila adanya persaingan, harga yang diletakkan menguntungkan pembeli dan pada harga pasaran. Bila harga sudah lebih kurang dengan negera-negara jiran. Buat apa nak seludup-seludup lagi. “Merabehkan boreh aja”. Penyeludupan pun mungkin boleh dikurangkan. Begitu juga dengan kes sorok gula. Kalau dapat kerajaan Malaysia dapat mengambil alih secara terus dalam isu impot gula ini dan juga beras, itu lebih baik. Tetapi walaubagaimanapun, ia bergantung akhirnya kepada kebijaksanan kementerian amnya dan kerajaan umumnya.

Adakah kita perlu menyimpan stok gula tidak lama lagi? Ini kerana dilihat sekarang sudah ada bunga-bunga untuk “harga murah” ketika ini tidak akan dapat bertahan lama. Boleh lihat berita selanjutnya yang dipetik daripada akhbar New Straits Times.

Sugar-king Robert Kuok has quit the business.

The government has always been able to count on billionaire Robert Kuok to keep domestic sugar prices steady even intimes of great volatility in world markets. But the businessman’s surprise exit last week from the trade that his family has controlled since the 1940s is raising concern that the days of stable sugar prices in the country may be numbered. Sugar is a controlled commodity in Malaysia.

“This is a highly complex business. Only a player like Kuok who is a big player in the world scene can absorb losses and keep prices stable when the international sugar market goes crazy,” said a Singapore-based sugar trader.

Kuok, well-known as the Sugar King, declared his intentions to exit the sector through a series of transactions valued at RM1.9 billion which were announced last Friday. The group did not provide reasons for the asset sales to state-controlled agriculture agency Felda. But company executives cited growing hurdles in the domestic sugar business as one key reason.

“The group isn’t moving out from Malaysia. It is just that the sugar business (in Malaysia) has become more difficult,” said a company executive. He said the government’s reluctance to raise retail prices does not make the business financially viable.

Bankers said brickbats from business rivals that the tycoon was benefiting financially from a sweetheart deal with the government were another factor.

“All the talk that he is living off government largess really got to him,” said the chief executive of a state-controlled bank who does a lot of work for Kuok.

The Kuok family’s interests in commodity distribution in Malaysia and many parts of Asia stretch back to the 1940s, through ventures with government agencies for the production and supply of flour, edible oil sand sugar. The country imports about one million tonnes of raw sugar annually,mainly from Australia, through government-set quotas, which make up roughly 90 per cent of the raw sugar needs of four Malaysian refiners.

Through several corporate vehicles, Kuok, South-east Asia’s richestman who resides in Hong Kong, controls about 70 per cent of the import quotas and has large equity holdings in three of the refiners. Malaysian officials note that during the regional currency crisis that began in mid-1997, the quasi-monopoly that Kuok’s group held over the domestic sugar trade kept prices steady despite the sharp devaluation of the ringgit.

But Kuala Lumpur’s reluctance to allow increases in the retail priceof sugar over the past decade on grounds that they could trigger public outcry has undermined the viability of the business, Kuok Group company executives said. Over the last decade, Kuok has also faced intense competition fromTan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al bukhary, a businessman who controls there maining 30 per cent of the import quotas.

While relations between the two businessmen are cordial, corporateties have become strained because of Syed Mokhtar’s manoeuvres in apublic listed company called Tradewinds. The investment holding company controls the country’s main sugar refiner, Central Sugar Refinery. Kuok, who owns a 20 per cent interest in Tradewinds through aprivate entity, has been unhappy with Syed Mokhtar’s recent deals,which have saddled the company with heavy debts.

Several bankers and industry executives said that Kuok’s decision tosell his holdings in the sugar business to a state agency under scored his belief that monopolies, particularly over key commodities, should be broken.

“He did the gentlemanly thing by selling it to a government agency so it would make it easier for the government to dismantle the monopoly,” said a Malaysian banker who knows Kuok. — The Straits Times

Ini adalah masalah dunia yang mana kerajaan Malaysia pun tidak ada hubungkaitnya dengan kenaikan harga gula ini. Kalau kerajaan Malaysia mempunyai sifat kasihkan dan mahu menjaga kebajikan rakyat, mereka mungkin akan menampungnya dengan memberikan subsidi atau boleh mencari alternatif terbaik bagi mengurangkan beban rakyat dikala harga barang sekarang meningkat dari hari ke hari.