Saturday, September 10, 2011

THE IMPOSITION OF THE SERVICE TAX – A BANE TO USERS

“The government has no say in the imposition of service tax by telecommunication companies (telcos) on pre paid reloads and pre paid starters/SIM packs” says Minister of Information Rais Yatim. Beginning September 15, 2011 pre paid mobile users will be incurred a service tax of 6% whenever they buy a start kit or reload.

How easy it is for a minister to say such a thing, knowing full well that it is his responsibility to protect consumers against ‘unregulated price hikes’ by telcos. Yes, we have laws, policies, regulations and what not, but this price hike of 6% is hurting the pockets of mobile users of the lower income group that prefers pre paid rather than post paid. I think the minister isn’t aware of this because he may not be a pre paid mobile user, and I believe being a minister, his post paid mobile bills are charged to the government. I also think being a minister he does not even need to buy a hand phone, as it all comes at public expense.

I remembered in the late 80’s when mobile phones was a fashion. I too was caught in this new fashion trend and purchased a mobile phone the size of my size 8 shoe at exorbitant price. I use to boast around with my new found toy to impress others that I could now communicate with people outside the confines of my office or residence. The mobile phone was bulky. It wasn’t possible that I keep it in my trouser or shirt pocket. I had to keep it in my brief case. It wasn’t a policy then where officers holding ‘critical positions’ were equipped with a mobile phone at government expense; like it is today. I soon found that my new found toy was a bothersome i.e. high phone bill, too large to carry around and more importantly, just could not stop my boss and officers from calling me that I finally decided to do away with the cumbersome mobile phone.

Now getting back at the 6% hike in service tax for pre paid mobile phone users, I think the telcos are aware that there is a lot of money to be made by imposing the service tax. You and I know that the millions of illegal and legal foreign workers prefer the pre paid rather than the post paid. And if one were to conduct a nationwide survey on the preference of pre paid over post paid for mobile phones, I am sure pre paid outnumbers post paid users. So, do you now see the logic of the imposition of the service tax? If an idiot like me can see the logic of the increase in service tax, I do not see how the learned minister wasn’t able to rationalize this issue, unless he is a much bigger idiot than me.

I think we have enough of these price hikes that know no limit. And for a minister to come forward with such a statement, and for whatever reason, is to me an irresponsible statement and a defeatist.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

16 comments:

Kamal Sanusi said...

Salam Aidil Fitri Dato'

I just wonder, what is the point of having a Menteris who at the end of the day will give such statement.

Rais said "We have no imposition on the said service tax". I guess no wonder he was accused to rape his Indon amah and raba-raba waitress coz' he has no job to do except launching majlis here & there.

Jamil Khir said "JAKIM tiada kuasa utk mengambil tindakan kepada penghina Islam" (unless they are from opposition parties, heheeheee).

This shows that our current KERAjaan is weak at the lowest level and very timely we should change them with stronger people who can put the welfare of its people at the highest priority.

That is why I said, it is good to have people like Mat Sabu, Anwar, Karpal, Lim Kit Siang etc.. so that there is a check and balance on what KERAjaan is doing.

If we have a working brain to analyze the situation, there is a kasta system and apartheid policy in this Malaysia which is now claimed by those professor "tak pernah dijajah pulak". History is totally different during my school time. Fening!!!...

Instead of discussing & making statement on how to improve Malaysia namely on economy, they prefer to challenge for a debate.

PLEASE CONVEY MY MESSAGE TO NAJIB. "CEPAT-CEPATLAH BUAT PILIHANRAYA AGAR SEMUA HARU BIRU NI DAPAT SEKURANG-KURANGNYA DIKURANGKAN AGAR RAKYAT DAPAT CARI MAKAN DENGAN AMAN. JGN DOK SYOK SENDIRI KONONNYA MALAYSIA MAJU. MAJU DGN MENEKAN MEMERAH POKET RAKYAT TIDAK AKAN BERTAHAN LAMA"







.

Anonymous said...

I would not want to have hope in Rais to do what is best for the rakyat.

From his flip-flopping stand on the ISA (has he forgotten his own PhD dissertation entitled "Freedom Under Executive Power in Malaysia: A Study of Executive Supremacy", to his supremely arrogant "I have changed my mode" (Google for the YouTube of it), to his swaggering "only when we are strong, can we say we are tuan", to his infamous "women should get permission to travel overseas", to his inability to do anything when ASTRO jacked up their proices (yet again!) recently...

Rais is notorious in my mind for all the wrong things.

Compared against the noble values and adat of the Malay race, what is Rais?

Compared to the people I consider noble in my mind, Rais is nothing.

Mej. A R Ramachandran (Retired) said...

Exploitation of the consumers again! I await responses from consumer associations. The PM sidestepped the issue,as for Rais, the lesser said the better.Wonder why this is happenning now? Just before budget day--nudge,nudge,wink,wink. C'mon folks read between the lines.

johnnie lim said...

what kind of stupid statement is that? if the communation ministry has no say or impose regulation on the telco, might as well close that ministry. why are we paying their salary and they are not doing anything to protect the rakyat's interest. I think these ministers don't care much or at all for the people, as long as their pockets are full that is all they care. time for change. we cannot be paying and paying, when will it stop.

EAGLE said...

Dato'.
In Malaysia not only Menteris are idiot but you get them everywhere in the government too and in the Armed Forces.
So apo nak di kato. It is up to the people to decide in the next PRU! and that is the only hope.

Frankie said...

Dato',

The telcos are all politically connected to UMNO. So it would be natural for an UMNO minister to say that the government has no say in the imposition of service tax by the telcos. The same UMNO minister had also said that the government has no say over Astro increasing their rates recently. Isn't it obvious that this UMNO minister and UMNO is protecting the telcos which invariably leads to protecting UMNO's interests?

SABM said...

Can somebody please enlighten;
1. 6% service tax (since raised from 5% by Najib & gov) is imposed by WHO????, if not the GOM
2. Restaurants & fast food outlets charge 6% service tax too !!!!
3. Then is it true that all this business establishments were being made to collect this taxes on behalf of GOM !!!

bruno said...

Dato,be it telcos or any Tom and Dick companies,any coporation adding service tax of 6% will definitely have an consultation with the respective ministeries.And in this case they already got the blessing to go ahead.Even adding 1% is no small joke,and 6% is going to buy their mistresses new luxury playtoy cars every month.

When Rais Yatim opens his big mouth he usually makes a fool of himself.He never uses whatever brain left in his head to think.He is stupid and senile.One can judge him by his position as Senior Minister and by the cabinet post he holds.

Rais Yatim being an Umno veteran has been a cabinet minister under so many PM's.And being the Minister of Misinformation in this present cabinet of Najib,shows how seriously the PM takes him to be.At least he should be FM,DM or EM.It is an insult to his seniority and he still doesn't get it.He should not have accepted the appointment and retired with his head held high.Instead he chooses to stay on.

He is among the many rejects among the present cabinet members.The only thing is he came in by the front door.His reputation is tainted.Many times far worst than Mca president CSL.And he still wants to be a cabinet minister.He should have joined CSL and both go down to Johore and tend to CSL's chicken farm.

Nur Emyinda said...

Salam Aidil Fitri Dato'

Can't agree more to what had been said and commented by all viewers here. The 6% is real disaster for especially students. During my varsity days,i remembered, we as students, used most of our reload credits to contact friends, families and lecturers and most of the time it was text messaging and not calls; just to saved up. We cant afford post paid of course. Wow...just imagine how much telco would have gained by the increased of the 6% especially collected from the students throughout the country...The rich getting richer-richest and the poor heading to poverty!!! Gosh...do hope and in need for another quick Election as what "they" say a country practising Democracy! Don't we have our say here???!!! Some one politician would always say “ Saya berikrar untuk bekerja tanpa mengenal erti jemu atau penat lelah, berkhidmat dan membela untung nasib rakyat..." . Wonder what it means to them politicians! ...i rest my case...ooops....got to run for my life now Dato'beforte i'd been send to timbaktu!!! ...

Malaysian said...

This is the first step for the government introducing GST. The government earlier on told us that our government is running out of money. Thus, we need to reduce subsidy which I do agree. However, why is our government subsidizing the rich that's well connected to UMNO. Also, why are we running out of money? It's because of UMNO that's stealing our money. We can see this clearly on Biometric project and MRT. There will definetely be cost over run which is very common for a lot of UMNO cronies project.

We must vote them out. I rather vote for Pakatan than BN atleast there is still some hope.

Please read this article by Ali Kadir: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/anything-but-umno-ali-kadir/

pronto said...

Dato'

Recently the government raise the foreign levy by RM50.00 per year. With about 3 million foreign workers[legal and 6p] in our country we are collecting about 150 million from "Malaysia employer". Now with another 6% coming from foreign workers we are collecting another 18 million just from foreign workers.Project 6P will rack in another billion as each foreign workers under 6P the Malaysian Employer's have to pay RM1,800.00. With 2 million foreign workers under 6P we have a lot to collect. We hope this billion will go into good use????????
The RM1 ringgit we earned from our sweat has been taxed many times. We pay income tax, road tax but still has to pay toll,car insurance stamp duty RM10.00, Astro 6%, TM 6%, kentucky, pizza, macdonald and all restorant 6%. Maxis6%. So every corner you go is 6%.

Nur Emyinda said...

Salam Aidil Fitri Dato',

can't agree morte to what had been said and commented by the viewers. True enough...recalling my varsity days where we had to keep on reloading our credits so as to text our parents, friends and lecturers. We can't afford post paid of course! Well, the agenda is clearly spelled out by Dato' and wow...the rich getting richer-richest and the poor going on to poverty perhaps!!! We had enough gas hikes already, and now comes this 6%...Democracy as they say...so, i'm speaking my mind as for now. Do hope for a quick Election. Moreover, somewhat, someone a politician did say this, " Saya berikrar untuk bekerja tanpa mengenal erti jemu atau penat lelah, berkhidmat dan membela untung nasib rakyat. Kita akan sama-sama melaksanakan satu transformasi besar buat negara dengan semangat: Satu Malaysia. Rakyat Didahulukan. Pencapaian Diutamakan”. Just wonder what these words mean to those "polimice"?! oops...excusei- moi for my language Dato'. oh dear...I better run for my life now before i'm thrown to timbaktu!

CsanLee said...

Dear Sir,
I've been reading your blog entries for quite sometime now but have not commented on any of the post, though I agree with you every time. So,this is my first comment.

Yes Sir, you said it rightly the said minister is a bigger idiot than you. In fact, he is a bigger and dumb idiot than all the rakyat of Malaysia, whom like you said he is duty-bound to protect.

ommo said...

Actually this is a wayang kulit because the BN guys will suddenly make a u turn to cancel the taxes to show how much they care. They just have to their little finger while the opposition with all their hard work have no power and nothing to show and the MSM ensure this. So Malaysia be prepared to be fooled and if they win this time comfortably, there will no stopping the disasters ensuing and blunders happening because efforts without a sincere heart will come to naught (power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely). So lets hope they make more blunders now and hope this is one of them. They look small 'kecil kecil jadi bukit'. Amin.

cskok8 said...

Lets separate the facts from the spin by our 1PM. The service tax has been imposed on all telecommunications users for many years. I have been paying 5% on my post-paid line for more than 10 years. The telcos have been absorbing the tax on prepaid users. Recently our caring PM has increased this tax to 6%. So this is NOT a new tax that the telcos are imposing. They (the telcos) are collecting it on behalf of our 1PM and remitting it to the Inland Revenue Board for him to spend. If he, as Finance Minister I do not know this, then he is stupid. If he knows and still talks the way he did, then he is lying.

xpara87 said...

dulu Melayu kena tipu dgn British kini Melayu kena kelentong dgn Melayu. Banyak main wayang.