MELAKA: A cooking oil packaging company in Melaka will face legal action after being caught red-handed for packing less than the required amount of cooking oil into the 1-kilogramme (kg) polybags.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) Melaka branch director Norena Jaafar said the enforcement team seized 850 packets of subsidised cooking oil during the 3 pm inspection yesterday.

She said the case is being investigated under Section 5 (1)(b) of the Trade Descriptions Act 2011, which is read together with Section 6 (1)(b) of the same Act.

"We did a random inspection on the re-packaged cooking oil and found 50 boxes containing 17 packets weighing less than 1 kg each.

"Check founds that each packet was packed 20 to 80 grams less than the required 1 kg. Although it's a small amount, it is still an offence as it involves misappropriation of subsidised cooking oil," she told reporters after conducting an inspection of the company in Batu Berendam today.

Norena said that during the inspection, the company's representatives claimed that the weighing scales were faulty, thus leading to the inaccurate weighing of the packets of oil.

-- BERNAMA