I am sure some of you, especially the Chinese community, endured a ‘#@$%^&*’ moment when you called for the bill after the reunion dinner or a food night out with family or friends on CNY day itself. Yes, most Chinese restaurants charge their customers an additional 20 percent or more of the total bill. This is what we at the National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) call unscrupulous business ethics.

Ironically, what is even more interesting is that, the mass are willing to fork out the extra cash without hesitation thinking it is acceptable just because it is Chinese New Year. Some of my Chinese colleagues informed me that it was normal and that is why they prefer to dine in during CNY.

Well, just because the mass think it is okay and encourages this sort of business conduct, that doesn’t make it right. What the restaurants are doing is a clear violation of the Anti-Profiteering Act 2010, but sadly no one is willing to go the extra mile to invoke the relevant provisions to curb this unethical code of business conduct, but instead is encouraging them by gladly dining at their restaurants.

Working in a complaints centre, we had received numerous complaints on this matter from the more consumer-sensitive crowd.

When questioned, a respondent without guilt for what he has done blatantly answered in Malay that he was only doing what other restaurants were doing and sees no red in it and as such, I shouldn’t be only querying him but all the restaurants who applied a 20 percent surcharge of the total bill.

It as this juncture that I realised, owners of restaurants that applied a 20 percent surcharge were not aware that what they were doing is wrong because the relevant authorities had been silent on this pattern of business.

Those who aren’t satisfied with this sort of business arrangement and if you have proof i.e. receipts that clearly indicates a CNY surcharge, are advised to lodge an official complaint with the Malaysian Domestic Trade Ministry. Urge them to conduct an investigation on these restaurants and to penalise them if found guilty.

Should this sort of business ethics continue to prevail and become a norm in our culture, it will just go to mean that the laws we have are redundant and even worse we foster unethical business conducts.

Let’s all be responsible consumers and take the first step towards being a prudent consumer today. I, for sure, would not want to see a bill with a Hari Raya or a Deepavali surcharge in the near future.

Remember, this could be like cancer, a spreading disease if not attended to in a timely and judicious manner!

Now before I finish, allow me to say KONG XI FA CAI and have a blessed year to all Malaysians! HUAT AHH!

SANTHOSH KANNAN is legal executive at the National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC).