DiGi supports suggestion on prepaid airtime

PETALING JAYA: DiGi.Com Bhd is supportive of the suggestion that consumers should receive RM10 worth of prepaid airtime when they purchase a similar reload value, its Chief Executive Officer Albern Murty said.

The third largest telecommunications provider also supported Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek’s plan to determine the mechanism for the “RM10-for-RM10” formula, related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for prepaid services, he said.

“We are working with the minister to ensure that we are able to work on his plan,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting here, today.

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department recently issued a directive to telecommunication companies to revert the pricing of prepaid cards to pre-GST prices.

However, the directive, which was supposed to have been enforced on May 1, was put on hold after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Chairman Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie made a statement that prepaid cards would continue to be sold with GST charges included, which resulted in the ministry having to take up the issue.

For that, Murthy said it would be almost impossible for service providers to implement the required changes at short notice.

On other developments, he said as at the end of its first quarter (Q1) to March 31, 2015, DiGi accumulated 11.7 million subscribers, out of which 9.9 million or 85 per cent are prepaid customers and the average revenue per user (ARPU) was RM39.

He reiterated that the company continued to invest in network and information technology to enable it to be a much stronger mobile Internet player.

He said the company would spend about RM900 million this year on capital expenditure, which is roughly the same amount it allocated last year.

In Q1 2015, DiGi recorded RM1.79 billion in revenue, up by 4.2 per cent from RM1.72 billion in the same period last year. — Bernama