Still remember that the PM announced in Budget 2010 that the government will be charging RM50 tax on every principal credit card and this amount can not be absorbed by the bank. (Read here)
The following diagram (from thestar.com.my) was the illustration from thestar.com.my on how customers could pay their credit card service tax:
Well, after a year, the "Malaysian Mudah Lupa" (Malaysian easily forget) attitude is surfacing on this issue.
What the banks had said previously already dumped into the thrash can, just for the seek of keeping old customer, and recruiting new customer. To recap what the banks had said:
- "our cardholders have the option to redeem (the service tax) using their points"
- "the credit card industry as a whole has come to a consensus that this tax will be borne by the cardholders and not the banks"
- "customers could also opt to use their reward points to redeem their service tax"
In order to keep customer, or to recruit new customer, some of the new promotion the banks had come out:
- Give away 10,000 free points, so that the card holder can use the free points to offset the RM50 credit card tax (Well, they still keep their promise, they did not absorb the tax, they only reward their customer with free reward points)
- Give cash rebate up front for new card approval (Same, again is reward and not absorb.)
- When you want to cancel your card, the bank can waive the tax with no condition.
Malaysian Mudah Lupa? Enforcement don't care? Time is diluting all policies? Revenue takes priority than compliance, till it's worthwhile to take calculated risk?
