Budget 2016: GST rebates for Prepaid users and faster broadband speeds

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has been slaving away tinkering and adjusting the scale of the annual Budget announcement. Being hard hit by drops in oil trade prices due to an excess of supply and micromanaging the qualms of 1MDB, our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has a lot on his hands – if that wasn’t clear enough. But will the ICT market win or lose when Budget 2016 is read?

In terms of ICT services, this year’s speech talked about ramping up internet access for non-urban locations from 5Mbps to 20Mbps, spending RM 1.2 billion – we’re unsure how far reaching this project will be but some areas in Rawang have yet to receive UniFi; please make your own deductions based on that.

Our Prime Minister also finally puts the prepaid GST issue to bed, by saying that if you’re local, your GST charges will be rebated back to your account starting from the 1st of January 2016 – leading us to believe that they’ll issue you a monthly statement so you can redeem your credit back; this is merely speculation on how the telcos will credit back your payments but wait for the official notice once it gets out.

This brings great news to those who have been feeling the pinch on their prepaid top ups. Also, just to recap prepaid top ups will be GST exempted from next month onwards (1st November) – e.g. a RM 10 topup will cost you RM 10. Instead, GST will be charged upon usage.

UPDATE: Prepaid Reloads will continue to be sold with 6% GST until 31st December.

In any case you paid attention to LAST YEAR’s budget, the MoF at that time said they’d implement high-speed broadband in high-impact areas, areas around state capitals and other major towns nationwide. We’d like to know if you felt that providers have upped their game if you live in or around Klang Valley; also, please share your views on how this budget will affect Malaysians.

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