Published: Thursday December 3, 2009 MYT 3:06:00 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: There was a 30% increase in the number of consumer complaints against financial institutions last year compared with 2007, said the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca).

The National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) operated by Fomca received 1,354 such complaints last year against 1,004 cases the previous year.

By LEE YUK PENG

KUALA LUMPUR: The Consumer Protection Act will cover purchases made via electronic transaction soon, said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said he would exercise his power as minister to amend regulations in the act so that consumers making electronic transactions were protected.

"The regulations will be gazetted without going through the amendment of the Consumer Protection Act itself,'' he told reporters at the Parliament Lobby Monday.

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

By Barbara Kiviat Friday, Nov. 27, 2009

The price wars have gone nuclear. From Target's $3 coffeemakers to Best Buy's half-price washing machines to Staples's $350 laptops, the theme of this holiday shopping season is, without a doubt, "we sell for less." Even Wal-Mart's commitment to "every day" low prices isn't preventing it from going lower. An online skirmish with Amazon.com that started with $9 hardcover books (books normally sold for three times that amount) has dominoed into other categories, driving down prices on everything from mobile phones to Easy-Bake ovens. The deals are everywhere.

Well, pardon my saying so, but I don't want them. I don't want to pay less. If anything, I'd rather pay a little more.

By Lee Wei Lian
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — The Najib administration’s move to bite the bullet by strengthening its finances via a new tax regime has drawn mixed reactions from the public as well as industry.

Malaysia, along with Hong Kong, is one of the few countries that have put off implementing the goods and services tax (GST) while countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have long had a form of GST in place.

But the country already has a sales and service tax of 5 per cent which will be subsumed by the GST.