STERN action will be taken by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs against traders taking advantage of the current outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus by indiscriminately increasing the prices of face masks.

The ministry’s secretary general Datuk Muez Abd Aziz in a statement in Putrajaya yesterday said face mask is an item under the price control list, where the maximum ceiling price has been fixed on five types of face masks under the Price control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.