The Royal Customs Department and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission today issued contradicting statements over the new prices for the mobile prepaid top-up cards.

Customs director Khazali Ahmad said the cards will be sold at  pre-goods and services tax prices starting Friday.

Khazali said he has personally instructed all four telecommunication companies to reinstate the pre-GST prices starting May 1, in a letter yesterday.

"The telcos must comply to an instruction by the Customs Department director. It doesn't mater if the prepaid cards are old or new stock," he was quoted by Bernama as saying.

He said this means users who pay RM10 for the prepaid card will get the same value of credit, starting May 1.

This is contradicted by MCMC chairperson Halim Shafie who said consumers will have to pay RM10.60 for RM10 worth of mobile credit. The extra 60 sen is for GST.

Alternatively, he said, consumers can pay RM10, but enjoy only RM9.43 in mobile credit after GST is deducted.

He said it is too complicated to revert to pre-GST pricing by May 1.

It will mean telcos, financial institutions, electronic payment proiders and some 30,000 sales agents will have to reconfigure their systems, Halim said.

"These costs should also be given careful consideration in coming to a final decision," he said.

He added that the Customs Department is acting "prematurely" since results for the consumer survey on pricing has yet to be reviewed.

The government earlier this year said the prices of prepaid mobile top-up cards will remain the same with GST.

This is because at six percent, GST levied on prepaid cards are the same as the service tax earlier levied on the cards.

However, instead of replacing the service tax component with GST, the telcos absorbed the service tax component into their profits and added the GST on top of the price.

The confusion led to shortage of the prepaid cards , after retailers refuse to sell the cards at post-GST prices to avoid consumer backlash.