KUALA LUMPUR, April 11 ― PKR lawmakers plan to table a Private Members' Bill in Parliament to set up regulatory control of the service charge imposed by hotels, restaurants and food and beverage outlets, amid public confusion over the matter after the April 1 implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Party strategic director Sim Tze Tzin said the lawmakers will soon start the process of receiving complaints and holding dialogues with service sector stakeholders to get down to the problems they face before tabling the proposed Bill.
“If the Umno/BN government fails to draw up legislation, we will come up with that law,” he said in a statement.
Sim said the current service charge rate of 10 per cent is exorbitant when considering that service standards remain at “disappointing” levels.
He said the service sector is monopolised by foreign workers, many of whom do not speak either Malay or English, lax on cleanliness and not polite to customers.
The Bayan Baru MP claimed that a 2 per cent service charge should be used to develop the standards of workers in the service industry, by paying for the cost of training.
“Customers feel the 10 per cent service charge is not value for money. Hence, the collection of service charge must be used to develop the national service industry,” Sim said.
Earlier this week, Putrajaya said it will only allow service charge to be imposed on customers by establishments that have a collective agreement (CA), following the public outcry over the continued existence of the charge post GST implementation.
The service charge is on top of the 6 per cent GST, which repaced the sales tax which also stood at six per cent.
