Telekom's rates hike a giant scam: Fomca
The increase in tariff rates by Telekom is a giant scam by the corporation, said the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca) today.
Telekom last year made a profit to the tune of RM1.57 billion, and 70 percent of this profit was derived from local calls. All I can say is that this (increase) is a massive con-job, said Fomca deputy president Marimuthu Nadason.
Leo Moggie who is the Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, had announced on Tuesday a 33 percent hike in local call charges and a reduction in international call rates. This was met with strong backlash especially from the consumer associations of Malaysia.
Marimuthu also expressed his concern that service providers would ultimately pass on the costs of the increase in call charges to the consumer, whereas the reduction in international tariff rates would only benefit the business industries and not the average Malaysian.
The typical attitude of middle-class Malaysia is to pass on increasing costs to the consumer, and if there should be a reduction in costs, no one but the businessman will profit. The consumer is always victimised, he said in a press conference at the ERA headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.
Justification untenable
He went on to say that Telekoms justification for the raise by using other countries as a yardstick was untenable.
They always compare with the developed countries. But the standard of telco services in those countries is so much higher than Telekoms. Complaints here always go unrectified and their efficiency has never improved.
Our Selangor consumer association gets 500 complaints annually. And this is for Selangor alone. You can imagine the total number of complaints nationwide, he said.
He named over-charging and wrong billing as examples of typical problems which can remain unresolved for a long period of time.
And because they are so arrogant, they dont even bother to have dialogues with us to sort things (complaints) out, he added.
The ministry yesterday had cited rural infrastructure development as another justification for the raise. This too was questioned by Marimuthu.
Wheres the strategy? All we have had are just excuses. Even so, the government has the responsibility to bear the costs of developing infrastructure, he said.
The ministry had also said that Internet tariffs would remain unchanged for ISP providers using shortcodes.
That is a white lie. When TMnets shortcodes get clogged up, then the user will have no choice but to log in by way of local calls. It is just a gimmick by Telekom.
It is definitely a step backward for information and communication technology, he said.
Speak less campaign
When queried if they had a plan of action, Marimuthu said they will begin with a Speak less save your money campaign urging all households with telephone lines to reduce their monthly bills by RM10.
If every Telekom customer is willing to join in this campaign, users will effectively be saving RM600 million yearly.
We strongly urge a return to the art of letter writing. It has become a forgotten art but we want to revive it. We hope to work closely with Pos Malaysia in this endeavour, said Marimuthu, who is also president of the Education and Research Association for Consumers, Malaysia (ERA).
He also stated that Fomca would now be taking a more aggressive stance, and expressed the intention to utilise consumer tribunals as an avenue of action.
Consumers should never have to pay for services which are not rendered, he added.
Aside from Fomca, Keadilan Youth also expressed their unhappiness at Telekoms decision, citing the increase in public phone tariffs as an example.
Most users of public phones are low-income earners and they live in the rural areas. But now they have to bear the 50 percent increase in [public phone] rates, said the Youth deputy head Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Cancel RM150 mil subsidy
Saifuddin also highlighted the fact that on Feb 12, Singapore Telecom (Singtel) had reduced Singapore calls to Malaysia by 31 percent to S$0.19 (RM0.39).
We increase the tariff and they do the opposite. Are we really serious about developing communications among Asean countries? he asked.
He also claimed that the real reason why international tariffs had been reduced was not because of the benevolence of the government, but because Telekom no longer had to pay connection costs to the other countries.
Keadilan Youth called for the tariffs hike to be revoked, and also urged the government to cancel the RM150 million subsidy paid annually to Telekom, considering its huge profits every year.
The new tariffs are due to take effect next month. All local calls would cost a minimal eight sen for the first two minutes and four sen for each additional minute thereafter, compared with nine sen for three minutes previously.
Telekom is expected to announce its financial results for last year before the end of this month.
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