Shabery's proposal - pay RM10 for RM10 in mobile phone credit

PETALING JAYA: Pay RM10 for RM10 in mobile phone credit — this is the proposal that Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek wants to implement to end the prepaid top-up card issue.

The Communications and Multimedia Minister said he would voice his opinion to the various CEOs of telcos and the Customs Department and bring the matter up to Cabinet next week.

“I feel this is a battle, to ensure it can happen. It’s not impossible.

“I have a few days. We can find a mechanism so the customer pays RM10 and gets RM10 value,” Ahmad Shabery said on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM)’s Suara Kita Hak Kita programme last night.

Currently, customers pay RM10.60 for a RM10 top-up — RM10 in phone credit and 60 sen in Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Another option that was considered was to pay RM10 and have RM9.43 in credit upon deduction.

“So the choice was whether to pay RM10.60 for RM10 worth of credit or to get RM9.43 upon paying RM10. To me, this is not relevant, because there was no third choice then,” he added.

Ahmad Shabery said the rakyat’s feedback was overwhelming support for paying just RM10 for the same amount of credit.

“Because this is the wish of the rakyat, this is my decision. I will follow what the rakyat wants,” said the Kemaman MP.

After meeting the management and technical representatives from various telcos, he said he would voice his opinion to the various CEOs and the Customs Department to resolve the issue.

Ahmad Shabery said the issue could not be solved “within two days” and time was needed to reconfigure the systems to follow new instructions.

Prior to this, telcos had configured their systems to give RM10 of phone credit upon payment of RM10.60.