COMMENT | A glass of tea costs RM1 in a hawker stall; RM1.80 in a kopitiam, about RM12 in a franchised café and up to RM18 for a cuppa in a five-star hotel. Which one of them is making a decent profit and which one is making a humongous yield?

There were days when a glass of t’ng nang teh or Chinese tea would accompany gratis with a meal in a restaurant. Then when charges were imposed, it started with five sen (when a plater of fried rice was RM1) and has steadily been increased to the present 60 sen in the Klang Valley.

In all instances, it is a case of a willing seller, willing buyer. If you think the price is high, go elsewhere or choose not to have a drink to wash down your meal.

The news that the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry has issued 84 notices against food and beverage premises operators nationwide for charging more than RM1 for a glass of water comes as a surprise.

Traders issued with the notice have two to five working days to provide the information required by the ministry before further action is taken in accordance with the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act.

Although action to keep prices of food and beverages reasonable is most welcome, the fixing of a “reasonable price” has opened a plethora of problems and turns the situation into a tricky and yet risky one to manoeuvre.

“This should not happen... maybe a more appropriate price would be between RM0.20 and RM0.30,” Bernama quoted Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Deputy Minister Rosol Wahid as saying.

Herein lies the danger. How did he arrive at those figures? Let’s crunch some numbers...