Mandatory to display all charges under new law
Published on: Sunday, February 14, 2016
Seremban: Businesses will no longer be allowed to get away with adding hidden costs to their displayed prices if a Government proposal to introduce a Single Pricing Policy (SPP) is implemented.Under the SPP, it will be mandatory for businesses to display only exact prices which are inclusive of all service charges, goods and services tax and any other previously hidden charges.A source said the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry was considering the measure after receiving complaints from consumers.
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"There have been many instances where the consumer actually ended up paying a lot more for a product or service than what was displayed or advertised."These additional charges are usually hidden in the fine print or disclaimers that come with the purchase."So, if the SPP is approved and implemented, businesses will only be allowed to advertise the exact price, which is inclusive of all other hidden charges including taxes."Giving an example, he said a hotel would no longer be allowed to advertise that a particular room costs only RM270 when the consumer would actually end up paying RM314.82 of which RM27 would be the service charge and another RM17.82 for GST.
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Another business where consumers can also be misled is the airline industry where ticket prices advertised are usually not inclusive of airport tax or other fees.He said an airline would advertise that a ticket to a particular destination was as low as RM206, but this was not inclusive of other charges such as the airport tax.
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"The consumer ends up paying a minimum RM368.90 which includes the relevant taxes and fee charges for the ticket which was advertised at RM206," he said.The source said the ministry was now fine-tuning the SPP after getting feedback from consumers and businesses.At a Domestic Trade, Consumerism and Co-operatives Ministry function recently, an official confirmed that the Single Pricing Policy was in the works but declined to comment further. The move, if implemented, will require an amendment to the Trade Description Act 2011.It is understood that other businesses to be affected by this measure were in the areas of food and beverage, tourism, telecommunications, on-line businesses, health and pharmaceutical, recreational and entertainment, banking and financial services, retail and transportation."The SPP will also help incorporate better business ethics and ensure consumers get real value for their money," the source said.He said that by not including "hidden costs" such as taxes and service charges, businesses were also not being fair to their competitors."They will portray that their rates are lower than their rivals' when in actual fact, they are not."So by making all of them display the real rates, consumers will be able to better determine which product or service they would like to have," he added. Consumers interviewed gave the thumbs up over the plan.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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