Image credit: Huffington Post
Now that the implementation of Malaysia’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) is less than two weeks away, it looks companies are slowly coming out to clarify which products or services will be charged. Chua Mei Lin, the Executive Director from Association of Banks Malaysia (AMB), recently said that the 6% GST will be affecting online banking, bill payments, over-the-counter and MEPS transactions as well.
Of course, the GST will not affect the full transaction amount, but only on the banks’ fee or charges for all transactions. This means that online interbank Giro fund transfers, including bill payment, would be subjected to GST. This is in response to a picture going viral claiming that GST affects ATM withdrawals. GST will not be charged on the amount withdrawn from an ATM; however, the MEPS transaction fees will be charged the 6%.
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Hence, you will see a charge of RM2.12 for instant interbank transfers (instead of RM2), though we’re not sure if the RM0.10 charge for Giro interbank transfers will be charged an additional RM0.006 (that’s 0.6 sen) per transaction.
“AMB member banks will publish their list of fees and charges, and GST details including whether GST is payable or not for those charges.” — Chua
GST will also be charged on over-the-counter payments, so for example, if you need to pay a RM100 bill via Pos Malaysia and the service fee is RM1, you’ll need to pay RM101.06 in total. Now that the banking industry has now clarified the issue, you will start seeing this additional charges from April 1, when GST finally kicks in.
(Source: MalayMail Online, Free Malaysia Today)
