PETALING JAYA, April 7 — Consumer groups are still pressing for service charge to be scrapped despite the directive issued yesterday.

The Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) chief activist Datuk Nadzim Johan said such rulings will not only confuse the public but will also open the door for more abuse.

“When it is not clear, in terms of ruling and implementation, it will only open doors for abuses. The grey area will create more opportunities for businesses to manipulate either employees or consumers,” he said.

“If businesses can cut corners with salary, who’s to say that the hotel and restaurants employees will benefit from the service charge, even with agreements. Agreements sometimes are made to be broken,” he said.

The directive, which came into effect yesterday, requires hotels and restaurants to display a notice that the service charge is imposed.

There was also a need for a collective agreement between employer and employee.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) chief executive officer Datuk Paul Selvaraj said the new ruling was too complicated and would create a conflict.

He said the government should go for a one-price policy where all the overhead and cost of businesses for these hotels and restaurants should go to the price of the products, for example, food and beverages.

“Why do we need to pay for separate charges.The idea for consumer protection is to enforce it through policy and regulations. One-price policy should be the way forward,” he said.

“The root of service charge is tipping. We can have a tipping policy. If the service is good, then you tip. Why need to force people to pay service charges through regulation?”