PETALING JAYA, April 30 — Questions over the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and prepaid reload pricing remain unanswered.

The Customs Department yesterday announced the prices for prepaid reload coupons would revert to pre-GST prices. 

Within hours, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) issued a statement insisting the current GST-added prices would remain.

Customs director-general Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmad said all telecommunication companies must revert to pre-GST prices for prepaid reloads from tomorrow.

He said before GST was implemented, prepaid reloads were subjected to Sales and Services Tax which was absorbed into the price of the cards.

“The service provided by telcos only starts when the customer activates the reload card. They should not be charging GST on the reload coupons,” he told reporters.

‘’From May 1, telcos must revert to prices before April 1. We issued a notice to the telcos yesterday (Tuesday).”

He confirmed this meant a RM10 top-up would remain at RM10, inclusive of GST.

Just hours later, the MCMC said prepaid reloads would still be sold with the six per cent GST added, bringing the price of a RM10 top-up card to RM10.60.

MCMC reported as of the fourth quarter last year, there were 36 million prepaid users.

Its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie said yesterday all parties previously agreed to allow telcos to complete their customer surveys before making further decisions.

“As stated on April 3, a survey will be conducted to assess if customers prefer lower reload values on which GST will be charged,” he said. 

“The survey is almost completed and the results will be presented to the relevant authorities next week.”

Dr Halim said it would be “almost impossible” for telcos to implement the changes for pre-GST prices by tomorrow.

‘’The difficulty is due to the complexities in reconfiguring the systems, not only by the service providers but also by third party agents such as financial institutions, electronic payment providers, supermarkets, petrol stations and other sales agents,” he said. 

‘’The cost will be significant. New stocks of prepaid cards also need to be produced and distributed.”

Asked to comment, Maxis and Celcom requested Malay Mail to “refer to the MCMC statement”. 

Khazali could not be reached for comment.