Labuan implementation of GST shocker
Published on: Thursday, January 16, 2014
Labuan: This island Federal Territory has already implemented the Goods and Services Tax (GST) of six per cent ahead of its April 1 2015 date - and despite assurances that Labuan, Langkawi and Tioman will be exempted due to their duty-free status.However, its only at the airport parking lot.Motorists using the metered monitoring parking bay at the airport were shocked when the service provider began including the GST in its computerised billing.ADVERTISEMENT More surprising was that this was happening under the very nose of Malaysian Airports Bhd (MAB) under whom jurisdiction over the airport comes under.It is understood that the GST was quietly incorporated into the billing recently and though some motorists was felt the pinch swallowed the "pill" in silence rather than going through the hassle of seeking a refund, others felt that such action should be nipped in the bud before others follow suit.A sales and marketing manager who wanted to be identified only as Teo said though the GST involved in the service was small, the complaint was a matter of principle. "Without it being highlighted it would become a continuous process."ADVERTISEMENT The normal parking fee before at the airport was RM1 per hour. Teo who parked his car on January 14th for a duration of 8 hours 9 min should rightfully be paying RM9 but had to pay RM10 because the billing at the exit point showed an addition GST (6 per cent) or RM0.60.
ADVERTISEMENT
When the "irregularity" was questioned the cashier explained that Teo could bring up the matter with the management of the company (Metro Parking) office at the Financial Park complex."Who on earth would for the sake of RM1 take the trouble to go to the complex, incur another parking fee and locate the office in the massive complex?" Teo asked.He said that it would be more appropriate for the company to have an office at the airport attend to such customer dissatisfication. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
The parking bay at the airport could accommodate about 100 cars or more. Some of the vehicles are parked briefly, others for a day or more as the driver would have parked and flown off to some destination.