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The Ministry of Finance is said to have a thumb in every pie in Malaysia, and now it has found a new means to pull out another plum. If you are on the roll of registered companies you recently received a letter carrying fresh information from the Ministry of Finance. Dated September 15, 2000, the letter informs you that Malaysia has entered the e-commerce age, and effective October 6, 2000 (6 days old already) you may enter it also, simply by registering with the Ministry of Finance and at the same time with a new entity, Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. Please send along RM300.
This allows you to bid on government contracts. Should you be lucky enough to be awarded one, you have a partner. The partner is Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. Their share of the contract is only 0.8% of the gross, and you need not pay up front. The Ministry of Finance has made arrangements to make it easy for you. When they mail you your check, they will automatically deduct 0.8% and send it to Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. You will receive the full amount of the contract as agreed, minus 0.8%, or 99.2%. Fair enough.
This is especially true when you consider that the 0.8% only applies to the first RM1.2 million of the contract. That puts a cap on the Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. share at RM9,600. What more could be desired in a silent partner?
The initial RM300 gets you started for the first two years, and allows you to present your goods and services on the internet for the entire period. Services require no graphics, but goods are required to be pictured. Each good pictured is free up to a maximum of ten. Over ten items though, and each item requires a further fee of RM25. The RM25 is good for one year. Then it must be renewed with Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. at RM25.
If you keep your registration paid, and make regular payments for the pictures of your goods, the Ministry of Finance will allow you to continue to bid on government contracts. Good standing with Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. is a prerequisite to doing business with the Malaysian government, effective October 6, 2000 (just past).
While to some this requirement may seem a restraint of trade, especially in the Asean free trade zone, discerning readers will detect the sly means by which the Ministry of Finance has accelerated the transition of Malaysia into the e-commerce age. No webpage, no fat government contract. Simple as that. This is not taxation without representation, it is just the Malaysian way of doing things.
Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. takes care of all the details. Whether they also charge a monthly fee for maintaining your website on their server is not known at this time, but certainly they mean to be continuously helpful. The ownership of Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. is not revealed in the letter of notice. One would surmise the executives have experience in the dairy business, where cream is routinely skimmed off the top to make butter. Perhaps they have interests in the casino business, where skimming to avoid taxes is routine. Whatever the ownership may be, this new company, Commerce Dot Com Sdn. Bhd. is certain to soon be familiar to everyone.