GEORGETOWN, April 18 – The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry (KPDNKK) received 10,822 complaints from consumers throughout the country within the 17 days the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented, said its secretary-general Datuk Seri Alias Ahmad.

He said as of yesterday, a total of 4,672 complaints were lodged through the e-complaint portal while the ministry’s official Facebook page and Twitter recorded 6,150 complaints. “Within two days which was on April 16 and 17, we found on average, complaints received dipped by 29 per cent compared to when GST was first implemented,” he told reporters after a GST Anti-Profiteering Operations conducted around Batu Ferringhi today.

He said public awareness had increased as 81,257 consumers were now taking advantage of My Kira GST application which had been made available for consumers to check on GST price comparisons. “In addition, since the launch of the Ez-ADU application last Thursday, a total of 1,819 consumers have downloaded the facility to their smartphones and this is a good progress,” he said.

Alias said 47 per cent of the complaints were on the price increase of goods, 28 per cent involved GST on prepaid cards, 12 per cent were on traders not displaying their GST registration number, eight per cent on service charges and five per cent on other matters.

So far, the ministry had issued 614 notices under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, to traders found selling goods at unreasonable prices. “However, these traders have been given three days to submit the related documents and to state their strong reasons for the price increase, before enforcement action can be taken against them,” he said.

Pocket News

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