CONSUMERS TOLD TO WATCH SPIRALLING PHONE BILLS
KOTA BELUD:
Families are advised to watch out their spiralling mobile phone bills and check their children’s spending spree on unnecessary calls.
This advice came from Assistant Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Herbert Timbon Lagadan, especially for families who hardly have any cash left at the end of the month for other bills.
“In this modern day, everybody uses hand phone, even while tapping rubber, because it is convenient. However we must be discreet. Don’t let your family suffer just because too much of your hard-earned money is spent on phone bills.
“There is a study by CASH (Sabah Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan) that shows some families even spent as high as 40 percent of their income on handphone bills alone! This is alarming and could have devastating effect on poor families,” Timbon said.
He said this while giving a talk at a dialogue between kampung folks with officers of a Government department and a bank in Kampung Lasau Lama near here yesterday.
Timbon who is the Kadamaian Assemblyman, also called on the villagers to make full use of opportunities provided by the various Government departments in the district.
“There are so many assistance schemes from the Government. You only need to go to the departments concerned. The Government even provides free fruit seedlings, fish fry, chicks and ducklings for those qualified, but not many know because they don’t ask or look for the departments,” he said.
Timbon said the good news for the Lasau folks is the on-going asphalting of the 15km stretch of road to Lasau. When completed it would enable the villagers to bring their agricultural produce to the town faster and cheaper.
