YOURSAY 'The biggest winners are the telco companies. They have new subscribers who will happily pay them hefty data costs every month.'

Cabinet scraps RM500 cap for phone rebate

your say Giudice: I thought Information Minister Rais Yatim said the cabinet will consider increasing the cap slightly ? Now there's no cap?

If the government cannot even get something so simple right, what hope do we have if they were to continue to govern? They prove over and over again that they are corrupt, incompetent and/or immoral.

Not Confused: What a hoot! BN and its cabinet members can't even make a sensible decision in the first place and have to backtrack.

This is not the first time this has happened, and it signals very clearly that they do not have their ear on the ground.

They live in ivory towers spending too much time amassing ever greater wealth for themselves and care not a jot for the man in the street unless it results in their ability to siphon even more money from the public coffers. Shame on the lot of them.

Not Convinced: The biggest winners of this smartphone rebate policy are the telco (telecommunication) companies.

They have new subscribers who will now happily pay them hefty data costs every month.

If they cannot afford to get a smartphone, they surely cannot afford to pay the high data cost.

Will the government help these poor smartphone rebate recipients by demanding the telcos slash their data costs? Don't bet on it. After all, they are mostly BN cronies.

Tailek: I don't understand why the government is spending RM300 million of taxpayers' dollars to give a rebate on smartphones to low-income earners.

Many people are quite happy with a normal phone and in my opinion if you can afford a smartphone you do not need the rebate.

On the other hand, if you cannot afford it, then don't buy one and just settle for a no-frills phone.

Kit P: The smartphone rebate for low-income folks looks like a gimmick, and not a clever one at that. Smartphones are hardly basic low-income necessities.

The RM300 million budget could be put to serve much more worthwhile causes like the needy.

Not Confused: They (BN) still don't get it, do they? Every time they come up with a scheme that is designed to grab headlines, it backfires on them big time, like this one.

They don't seem to realise that the vast majority of us all know that it is only intended to provide yet another channel to siphon off more of the rakyat's hard-earned cash.

Ostensibly, it is to try to win votes but in fact, it always has the opposite effect. Really amusing.

Anonymous#007: This scheme has been a farce from the moment it was conceptualised. It is an utter waste of taxpayers' monies used in the most unproductive way.

The way it is being bulldozed through is suspicious enough. And there is no mention of removing the restriction on the eligible dealers/telcos and phone models.

Stop BN from siphoning off taxpayers' monies. Who got paid, and how much, for the design and supply of the 'packaging' for this scheme?

Why do we even need a packaging? Why set the rebate at RM200 when you can get 3G phones now for less than RM100?

Why not set the rebate at RM50 for six million youths? This scheme is costing taxpayers' more than RM300 million if you include the IT and administrative infrastructure needed simply to operate this scheme.

Why not wait until after April, when there will be a flood of cheap but newer 3G handphones in the market for the youths to choose from?

Onyourtoes: Umno-BN, you are simply hopeless. You can't hold more than two variables in your head and that is why you having endless problems even if it is a programme that is supposed to gain you votes from the youth.

You just watch, the programme will cause even more frustrations and grievances and it will boomerang back on you negatively.

You are not governing any more. You are merely pandering to unlimited demands in exchange of votes and popularity.

Soon those earning more than RM3,000 will be asking too. Soon some pensioners too will be asking. Why, you think pensioners do not know how to use smartphones?

Soon, some will be making false claims - no smartphones were ever purchased, but receipts issued by vendors will be plentiful.

Remember withdrawing money from the EPF (Employees Provident Fund) to buy computers? How many were actually caught stealing their own money?

Appum: This kind of constant flip-flop decisions by the government of the day (like recently the Automated Enforcement System or AES) really reflects the kind of quality minds managing the nation.

They can't fathom what are the causes and effects of any decision, can't foresee any implications, be it social, economic, political or anything beyond their nose.

And they just use up the nation's finances like nobody's business. Why doesn't Umno spend its own money, they have tonnes in reserves? Or make sure the RM200 billion flown out of the country is brought back to finance such idiotic policies.

Swipenter: HP6 (half-past six) policies of a HP6 government. Can never get anything done right the first time.

All they are good at is giving band-aid solutions to long-term problems.

If you cannot afford a smart phone, so be it. Why don't they address the 7 percent discount for bumiputeras who can afford to buy high-end properties instead of this smartphone thingy?

Anonymous_3f49: One never knows what the government is coming up with next. Be prepared for the next episode.

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