Prepaid tax: New meaning to 'rakyat didahulukan'

'Already the government is taxing everything else. ‘Rakyat didahulukan' - it means the rakyat have to suffer first.'

PM: Prepaid tax not gov't decision, wants review

ONG: PM Najib Razak talks nonsense when he said that telecommunication companies (telcos) should review their decision to pass the burden of the 6% service tax on mobile phone prepaid reloads to their customers.

If he understands or even knows what is spewing out of his mouth, he should then ask all other businesses to also absorb their service taxes too. If I am running a business for which my goods and services are subject to government service tax, I will also pass the tax to customers.

Will Najib also ask all motor vehicle dealers to absorb the taxes imposed on cars because people find such taxes to be a burden? If the government feels that such taxes are a burden, then don't impose them.

Instead of talking nonsense, he should stop all the pilfering and plundering of government funds by his BN crony thieves so that less burdensome taxes need be imposed on people.

Pemerhati: Najib said that the government has nothing to do with the decision by the telcos to pass the 6% service tax on mobile phone prepaid reloads to the customer. He said the tax should be reviewed so as to not burden the consumers and the Finance Ministry did not approve it.

Najib's government is the one that imposed the 6% tax on the telcos and some other service providers. The other service providers like Astro have passed on the service tax to the consumers but it appears the telcos were more generous and considerate towards the consumers and absorbed it for a while. But now, like Astro and everybody else, they have decided to pass it on to the consumers.

Is Najib now trying to say that when his government imposes a service tax, it has to be absorbed by the organisation providing the service and not by the consumer?

Ferdtan: How can PM Najib be also a finance minister if he doesn't understand a simple thing like service tax?

A tax, be it a service, corporate, sales or any other type of tax is a tax imposed by the government on the people. The money collected from the tax goes to the government coffers. The private corporations due to competition may absorbed these government charges, and pay on behalf of the consumers.

Anonymous_5fb: Najib, am I reading wrongly what you said? The Finance Ministry, which is under your charge as finance minister, didn't approve the service tax but the telcos did it on their own?

This only showed that you, as the finance minister, don't even know the mechanism how the service tax is charged. Let me give you a tuition.

Previously, let say a consumer pays RM100 to the telco, RM94.34 is the telco's income, RM5.66 is service tax pay to the government. But now, the consumer will pay RM106 - RM100 is the telco's income, RM6 is service tax to the government, which means the telcos no longer absorb the service tax, but push it to the consumer.

So, does this need approval from the Finance Ministry?

1M: To impose a 6% service tax is a government's decision, whether to absorb it or to let the customer pay for it is for the telcos to decide, they do not have to get the approval of the government.

Therefore Najib is acting hero by saying that the telcos decision should be reviewed. If he did not impose the 6% tax, this episode would not have happened. So Mr PM, if you are so considerate, just withdraw the 6% tax.

Khairy wants 'boss' to cancel prepaid mobile tax

Azizi Khan: Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, are you implying Malaysians are not contributing enough taxes already?

How about the government (namely BN and its co-conspirators) be frugal for once instead of blaming citizens. I believe it's time we say, "Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you".

Tuah PJ: Abdul Rahman, why should I contribute to the development of this country? This country does not treat me fairly based on my skin colour. I have to strive for everything harder and when I donate, I still have to pay taxes.

Tell The Truth: Does the Kota Belud MP have shares in telcos? It should be the telcos who should contribute to the nation's economy instead of the other way around.

Who are the users of pre-paid services? They are the low-income earners, housewives, students and pensioners - not like you, earning a fat pay and sitting on your butt talking rubbish.

Bertrand Russell: Abdul Rahman Dahlan is foolish to say that the 6% tax is not going to hit us badly.

Everything goes up in Malaysia just to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. These guys are robbing the country.

Okay, I agree, let's be prudent but I also call on the government to be prudent since they are so lavish in their spending. PM Najib should cut down his electricity bill and stop going overseas on the people's money.

Zainal: So the poor rakyat have to pay more taxes to use mobile phones as a contribution to the country, but someone need not pay tax to buy a RM24 million diamond ring. How can that be?

AkuMelayu: I see that many does not understand the real issues here. The 6% service tax of prepaid reloads that we are talking here has existed all this while, and has been absorbed by the telcos.

The government is not the culprit here because they are not going to gain anymore than what they are getting now. It's the telcos who are greedy and wanted to pass the cost to the consumers.

Onyourtoes: Sorry fellow Malaysians, this is not the way to manage our taxation in the country. What Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and PKR is doing is populist economics, not rational economics.

We cannot have multiple categories of taxpayers in the country. The issue is service tax, its rates and the sectors the government has chosen to impose. Once that has been decided, its implementation should be without exemption or exclusion.

What do you mean the poor and the students should be excluded from paying service tax on prepaid? Arbitrage can take place any time. I may be a millionaire, but what is there to prevent me from getting a prepaid card?

It is just like subsidies, we have too many categories of people enjoying it. It is not effective; it leads to corruption and uneven benefits and extra costs of managing all these.

Please note, I am talking about efficient management of our tax system, and not supporting Kota Belud MP's moronic argument about contribution to development.

The biggest vultures are not the telco companies. They are making money in a very competitive market capitalising essentially on decreasing cost of technology and innovation.

You want to know the real big vultures, look no further than Umno-linked companies and their cronies, including toll roads, IPPs, banks, AP holders of various kinds, casinos, Big Sweep, and 4D.

Kuduka: Onyourtoes, I suggest you be on your toes and read this article .

Dr Jacob George: Yes - exploit the consumer, yet again! This is just the tip of the iceberg of corrupt practices.

The truth is, we have fallen so far from the tree and greed has gone so unfettered that today, it has encompassed too wide a spectrum that we are all fighting a losing battle.

They are aided and abetted by brain-dead politicians and policymakers, who are more interested in protecting their own turf and that of their cronies', and by toothless legislation and commissions which are more for cosmetic exhibition, rather than the holistic change that we need.

Fairnessforall: Already the government taxing everything else. They can't leave anything alone. Is this what Najib means by 'rakyat didahulukan' - that the rakyat have to suffer first?

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