COMMENT | If you go the mamak stall, your cup of tea would cost RM1.20. At a kopitiam, you may end up paying RM2 while at a roastery and coffee house chain, it would be RM8. If you want your tea served in China cups with silver spoons, be prepared to part with RM18 plus taxes at a five-star hotel.

Similarly, the price of the humble roti canai can vary from RM1.20 at the mamak stall to RM45 in a five-star hotel.

You, the consumer will have to decide where you want to have your cuppa. When comparing prices of those at the stall and the hotel, could it be excessive profiteering? Could you complain about the price disparity?

You can’t and there is no law – written or otherwise – that can compel standardising prices of goods or services. Yet, over the years, the government has shown that it would not interfere in a free market where prices are determined by supply and demand.

Prices were never regulated. The exceptions have been the prices of...