Customers to fully understand GST rebate method on prepaid top-ups within three weeks - Jailani

The Communications and Multimedia Ministry has urged telecommunication service providers to continuously educate their customers on the new rebate method of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for

prepaid top-ups.

Its Deputy Minister Datuk Jailani Johari said the ministry believed that by doing so, the implementation of the new GST rebate method from Jan 1, could be fully understood by customers in two to three weeks time.

"The ministry has asked the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to issue a standard operating procedure to be shared with telecommunication service providers, top-up card sellers and users," he told reporters during the fourth anniversary event of the NasionalFM radio station at Wisma Radio, Angkasapuri, here on Monday.

From Jan 1 to Dec 31 this year, prepaid mobile subscribers in the country would receive a rebate on the GST of their prepaid top-up, which would be credited directly to their account.

Touching on the flaws of the Malaysian Emergency Response System 999 (MERS999) which was brought up by a local newspaper last month, Jailani said related parties should fix the problem to ensure the system was workable.

The newspaper reported that there were some problems faced by ambulance service providers to find the exact location of the caller.

It was reported that the flaw had been pinpointed to the data generated by the Automated Location Identification system, which could been caused by inaccurate details from the caller, error of MERS999 operators or inaccurate information relayed by telecommunication companies' base transceiver stations

(BTS).

MERS999 is an initiative by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and TM Berhad to consolidate the platform to place calls to all emergency services using the '999' number.