Best solution for pre-paid card issue

Kuala Lumpur: "Shabery Cheek, please take charge of the top-up issue. From now, any announcement to the people can only be made by the KKMM Minister".(KKMM refers to Kementerian Komunikasi dan Multimedia or the Communication and Multimedia Ministry).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's statement on his Facebook and Twitter accounts Friday, directing Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek to handle the issue of top-ups of pre-paid cards would hopefully, resolve the confusion over the matter.

Complaints on the top-up value of the pre-paid cards were among the most since the implementation of the Goods and Services (GST) Tax on April 1.

The Royal Customs Department then instructed telecommunications companies to set the value of telephone pre-paid cards to its previous price before the GST was introduced.

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However, the ruling which should have been enforced today (May 1), was postponed after Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie in a statement on Wednesday, said pre-paid cards would continue to be sold, with the inclusion of the GST.

The issue went viral on the social media with facts being manipulated to create dissatisfaction among the people with the government.

The National Professors' Council politics, security and international affairs cluster chief Prof Datuk Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak said it was actually not easy to rescind the GST charge for pre-paid cards in a hurry.

"If today, the government says there is no GST for pre-paid cards, trust me, tomorrow there will be other parties who will come forward and take advantage of the government's concern and make unreasonable requests about the GST," he said.

He said the instruction to telecommunication companies to retain the original price was also due to the fact that it was impossible for service providers to implement changes in a short period of time.

"What has been implemented should be continued, do not rush into changing what has been fixed, take time to conduct a study, taking into account all aspects," said Mohamed Mustafa.

He said it was definitely difficult to revert to the pre-GST rate as it would cause difficulty in re-configurating the system.

Halim said: "Not only for the service providers but also for third-party agents such as financial institutions, electronic payment providers, supermarkets, petrol stations and other sales agents totalling about 30,000." – Bernama

He said it also involved large cost for service providers and other third party agents, besides the fact that new stocks of pre-paid cards had to be issued and distributed nationwide.

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Clearly, changing the GST for pre-paid telephone cards to 'tax inclusive' could not be done hurriedly but what has been implemented should be continued until the best solution is reached.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Shabery in his Twitter said he would be meeting with the relevant parties to get at the best solution for the issue of top-up value of the pre-paid cards. - Bernama

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