Deputy Speaker rejects motion on bank charges

Deputy Speaker rejects motion on bank charges
Beh Lih Yi
Dec 13, 04 5:27pm

Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Lim Si Cheng today rejected an emergency motion by the opposition to debate on the surcharges imposed by commercial banks on customers.

In rejecting the motion, Lim conceded that the issue was important but added that it was not urgent in order to be debated in the House.

He said the issue is being addressed by Bank Negara, which is expected to introduce a guideline on banking service charges next February.

The emergency motion was submitted by Fong Kui Lun (DAP-Bukit Bintang) under standing order 18 (1).

He said it was unreasonable for commercial banks to impose various surcharges on customers to gain profit.

He cited the new policy of Maybank2u.com as an example. Under the new policy, the bank will impose a RM12 annual subscription fee for customers using its Internet banking facility effective from Dec 20.

The move drew flak from customers who have flooded the bank with protest e-mails.

Fong said the matter also involved public interest since the customers had to dig deeper into their pockets while the commercial banks made huge profits.

He noted that in 2001, commercials bank made a profit of RM2.5 billion, RM6.4 billion in 2002 and RM6.9 billion last year.

He also said that despite a public outcry, Bank Negara did not instruct commercial banks to terminate the surcharges.

Voting age

In another matter, the Dewan Rakyat was told that the government has no plans to lower the eligible voting age to18.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz dismissed the proposal on the ground that the youths are not matured enough to elect the country’s leaders and most of them are still studying.

He added that many other Asian countries have also which fixed the voting age at 21.

Nazri said this during the question-and-answer session when replying to Dr Rozaidah Talib (BN-Ampang).

In her supplementary question, Rozaidah asked why an18-year-old was eligible for a driving licence but not allowed to vote.

Responding to this, the minister said the MP should not draw a comparison between the two since a driving licence merely involved “machine and driving skill”.

He said if the voting age is lowered to18, there could also be the possibility of Malaysia having an 18-year-old prime minister in future.