Subsidies and Price Controls of Malaysia The Malaysian government subsidizes and control prices on a lot of essential items to keep the prices low. Items such as palm oil, cooking oil, petrol, flour, bread, rice and other essentials has been kept under market prices to keep cost of living low. In 2008, the government announced that it has spent RM40.1 billion in 2007 in subsidies to keep prices levelled. Smuggling and hoarding, which led to shortages, is a prominent problem in Malaysia due to the subsidies. For example, cooking oil is subsidised for domestic use only. This situation creates an environment where industrial players hoard domestic cooking oil for industrial use. During shortage time, such as the January 2008 cooking oil crisis, the government imposed a 5 kg limit for each purchase to relief domestic demand. However, the limited purchase has created more panic in buying, which prompted the Government to negotiate with cooking oil ma...