The Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia has retracted previously announced plans to charge 20 sen for online shopping to help raise funds for the B40 group and for improving communications amenities in rural areas.

Shopping through online platforms has become quite a norm in our daily lives thanks to it being an easier way to shop without having to go to stores, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic where people are intentionally spending more time at home to practice social distancing.

Recently, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia announced that they are planning to impose an extra charge of 20 sen for any online purchases from RM200 to RM1,000.

There won’t be a 20 sen charge for online purchases between RM200 and RM1,000 according to the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

But, the Ministry have issued a statement saying there won’t be a 20 sen charge for online purchases.
This was issued after the ministry’s Deputy Minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin said that this plan is intended to raise a special funds to help the B40 group as well as improving communications infrastructure in remote areas.

“The additional charge will be like the service charge, and if the purchase exceeds RM1,000, the additional charge will be 40 cent,” – Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, Deputy Minister, The Communications and Multimedia Ministry .

20 cents to be charged for online shopping

Last month, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia announced that they are in the process of finalising their efforts to combat online fraud cases by joining efforts from private companies to curb the problem.

According to Datuk Zahidi, private companies will provide cybersecurity services to protect users’ personal data and information.

At ministry levels, they are already in talks with multiple companies to form a plan to introduce a payment gateway fee where a small fee is likely to be charged for any online purchase, but this is still under discussion.

The additional charge will be imposed via e-commerce platforms such as Shopee and Lazada.

This move most probably isn’t favourable among rakyat. Even the Minister of Federal Territories, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, said that he will oppose any plan to impose additional charges for purchases made on online platforms.

Digital tax implementation

Earlier this year, in January, the government had imposed a 6% service tax on foreign digital services.

Ministry of Finance in a statement listed the examples of taxable digital services such as software programs, online advertising services, electronic data management, and digital content.

Among the famous digital services involved are Airbnb, Netflix, Spotify, and Google. But, this tax doesn’t apply for any online shopping platforms.

Conclusion

This plan originally was suggested to help the B40 group after this pandemic and to build a new infrastructure for the rural areas. But, this plan is halted as it will affect rakyat preference on online shopping.

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Do you think it is relevant to impose additional charge for online shopping?