{"id":2179,"date":"2011-09-09T22:54:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T03:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2011-09-09T23:09:01","modified_gmt":"2011-09-10T04:09:01","slug":"demographics-play-a-role-in-this-prepaid-service-tax-pushback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2011\/09\/09\/demographics-play-a-role-in-this-prepaid-service-tax-pushback","title":{"rendered":"Demographics play a role in this prepaid service tax pushback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/bytebot\/status\/112131010052890624\">tweeted<\/a> yesterday: Why are prepaid users any different from postpaid users when it comes to GST? <strong>Demographics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>People are up in arms, and the youth division of the incumbent and opposition political parties seem to think this is bad. Postpaid users have been paying the 6% tax since 2011, thanks to Budget 2011 from the Najib government.<\/p>\n<p>According to Bernama, telcos have been <a href=\"http:\/\/bernama.com\/bernama\/v5\/newsindex.php?id=612531\">absorbing<\/a> the tax for prepaid users since 1998. As all these telcos are public listed, why are the shareholders suffering? Keep in mind that several telcos are giving away 50-80% of profits in dividends for stockholders.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: left;\" title=\"skmm.gov.my_link_file_facts_figures_stats_pdf_handphonesurvey05booklet.pdf.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/skmm.gov_.my_link_file_facts_figures_stats_pdf_handphonesurvey05booklet.pdf.jpg?resize=399%2C187\" alt=\"Skmm gov my link file facts figures stats pdf handphonesurvey05booklet pdf\" width=\"399\" height=\"187\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>I figured it must be something to do with demographics. The latest <a href=\"http:\/\/skmm.gov.my\/index.php?c=public&amp;v=art_view&amp;art_id=72\">study<\/a> by SKMM is dated from <a href=\"http:\/\/skmm.gov.my\/link_file\/facts_figures\/stats\/pdf\/handphonesurvey05booklet.pdf\">2005<\/a>. Its a most interesting read. I&#8217;m willing to believe these stats don&#8217;t vary much in 2011&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Malays have 53.9% share of handphone users, followed by the Chinese at 32.4%, the Bumiputra (Sabah &amp; Sarawak) at 6.5% and the Indians at 6.3%.<\/li>\n<li>Prepaid subscribers are 80.4% of the demographics, with 19.6% being postpaid.<\/li>\n<li>In 2005, ages 15-19: 11.5%, 20-24: 20.9%, 25-29: 16.2%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Guess who&#8217;s voting in the next election? Guess who&#8217;s having the loudest voice? I see this as akin to having a tax for motor vehicles on the road, but not having one for the basic motorcycles.<\/p>\n<p>Najib (<em>\u201cSo I hope it can be reviewed to reduce the burden of the rakyat who are now facing hikes in food prices\u201d<\/em> via <a href=\"http:\/\/malaysiakini.com\/news\/175344\">Malaysiakini<\/a>)and Khairy suddenly cares for the rakyat. They want a complete GST implementation (to <a href=\"http:\/\/thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2011\/7\/10\/nation\/8881720&amp;sec=nation\">ensure<\/a> that it <em>&#8220;broadens the government&#8217;s revenue base&#8221;<\/em>) but for your <strong>non-essential<\/strong> mobile phone, they want it to be GST-free? Tsk tsk.<\/p>\n<p><b>Quick Update:<\/b> DiGi&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boardroomlimited.com\/irdigi\/irdigi\/DiGiAnnualReport2010.pdf\">annual report 2010<\/a> states that 7.3 million subscribers are prepaid users, with only 1.4 million postpaid users. Maxis <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maxis.com.my\/personal\/about_us\/investor\/pdf\/MAXIS-Annual_Report_2010.pdf\">annual report 2010<\/a> states that there are 10.69 million prepaid users versus 2.67 million postpaid users. Interesting ratios, but since they&#8217;re not the government, they don&#8217;t give you racial demographics :-)<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Demographics%20play%20a%20role%20in%20this%20prepaid%20service%20tax%20pushback&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bytebot.net%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F09%2F09%2Fdemographics-play-a-role-in-this-prepaid-service-tax-pushback&share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email a link to a friend\" data-email-share-error-title=\"Do you have email set up?\" data-email-share-error-text=\"If you&#039;re having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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Demographics. People are up in arms, and the youth division of the incumbent and opposition political parties seem to think this is bad. Postpaid users have been paying the 6% tax since 2011, thanks to Budget 2011 from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Demographics%20play%20a%20role%20in%20this%20prepaid%20service%20tax%20pushback&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bytebot.net%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F09%2F09%2Fdemographics-play-a-role-in-this-prepaid-service-tax-pushback&share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email a link to a friend\" data-email-share-error-title=\"Do you have email set up?\" data-email-share-error-text=\"If you&#039;re having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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I wroteabout it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Malaysia&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8560\/8703864818_ef86a3de4f_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1859,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2010\/09\/16\/learnings-from-the-philippines","url_meta":{"origin":2179,"position":1},"title":"Learnings from the Philippines","date":"16\/9\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Learned a few things during my trip to the Philippines this time. Another country that amazes me. For the first time in history, Philippines attracted more foreign direct investments (FDI) than Malaysia, in 2010 (see: Malaysia's FDI plunge). Mobiles There are a lot of people here using prepaid phones as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Travel&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":983,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2008\/08\/29\/mnp-here-mobile-content-thoughts","url_meta":{"origin":2179,"position":2},"title":"MNP here; mobile content thoughts","date":"29\/8\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a busy week for the MCMC. They've just announced that Mobile Number Portability (MNP), will now be a reality (a rather delayed reality. There is a FAQ available. Key things to note: Don't terminate your mobile number before porting - only active numbers can be ported If you're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1635,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2010\/01\/06\/on-free-wifi-at-hotels","url_meta":{"origin":2179,"position":3},"title":"On free WiFi at hotels","date":"6\/1\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I was reading Hotel WiFi Should Be a Right, Not a Luxury, by Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch, and I tend to agree with her - Internet connectivity should be provided as part of a hotel package. Its not a right, but its 2010, it should be common courtesy. I write\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Travel&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2389,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2012\/06\/04\/pulling-strings-in-malaysia","url_meta":{"origin":2179,"position":4},"title":"Pulling strings in Malaysia","date":"4\/6\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend was an example of pulling strings while in Malaysia, something that I completely do not like to do, and think should be unnecessary in a service-based economy. The Samsung Galaxy SIII (S3) just launched in Malaysia. The ads have gone up and people have been queuing since 4am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1527,"url":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2009\/06\/02\/mobile-prepaid-broadband-in-thailand-malaysia-and-singapore","url_meta":{"origin":2179,"position":5},"title":"Mobile prepaid broadband in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore","date":"2\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was in Bangkok, Thailand recently, I received really good information from John Berns, one of the organisers of BarCampBangkok3. He told all out-of-town guests, that you have options for data, with regards to phone SIMs (which you can procure for less than 100 Baht, and topups range from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Travel&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}