Price of Cookies in Labuan

Labuan: Despite higher grocery prices, surprisingly the prices of delicacies sold at the Ramadan stalls had remained as before.

Cookies such as "kueh lapis" and "pulut panggang", among others, are quoted at RM1 for a pack of three pieces, same price as the previous years.

A survey, however, showed that though the prices had remained unchanged, the size of the cookies had been "shrunken". But most consumers don't seem to mind this.

"We know it is smaller sized now, smaller by at least 10 per cent or more but it is okay as long as we could still purchase at old prices," said one of them.

The other reason why prices had remained the same could be because the Labuan Corporation (LC) had ensured that there are enough stalls and as such create a choice of food items and also healthy competition among the operators.

The Licencing officer of LC Manisah Mahmood said: "We have issued 165 permits for the Ramadan Bazaar of which 126 are at Jalan Dewan, Jalan Manwar (26) and Batu Arang (13).

Approvals had also been granted for stalls at Pantai, the new hospital area and Masjid but stalls had yet to operate yet.

She added that compared to last year, 50 more permits were issued this year. She added that operators needed to pay RM3 per day to operate a stall, and this made it affordable to many.

Despite the increase in the number of stalls, business had been brisk this year. Manisah said that was largely due to the presence of oil and gas workers, most of whom were on contract and single on the island.

The rush for Ramadan cookies and food every evening had resulted in a new irritation for motorists, especially along Jalan Tun Mustapha highway near the road junctions where traffic flow was at a crawl after 5pm.

Meanwhile, Manisah said the LC would be accepting renewal of trading and operating licences from Oct 1.

(Daily Express)