PETALING JAYA: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has called for the Goods and Services Tax to be abolished for prepaid top-ups.

Khairy, who is Youth and Sports Minister, he said this would help ease the burden on young people who are already faced with rising cost of living.

He stressed that the issue of GST on prepaid top-ups had gone on for far too long.

“In this modern world, even communication becomes a necessity,” he said in a statement.

Khairy hopes that the upcoming Budget 2016, due this Friday, would bring good news for young Malaysians.

In May this year, Customs director-general Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmand issued a directive to all telecommunication companies to revert to the charges on prepaid top-ups before the implementation of GST.

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission chairman Datuk Seri Dr Halim Shafie responded by saying that telcos could not follow the directive due to the complexities on reconfiguring the GST systems already in place.