S'wak wants 30% of tourism tax

KUCHING: The Sarawak government wants to have at least 30 per cent from the Tourism Tax collected in Sarawak to be channelled back to the state.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah viewed the recent announcement about Sarawak to be given just 10 per cent from the tax as ‘unfair’.

“Strictly or by right, all the Tourism Tax collected in Sarawak should solely go to Sarawak. We are kind enough to let the federal government to take a big chunk of it. But, don’t give us back only 10 per cent.

“RM1 out of RM10 is not fair. We would want at least 30 per cent from the collection or even more,” he told reporters yesterday after receiving a courtesy call from representatives of Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) at his office here.

Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg had already expressed his dissatisfaction over the 10 per cent allocation from the Tourism Tax as this was not what had been agreed upon prior to the announcement.

Abang Johari was quoted in news reports as saying that Sarawak and Sabah already submitted a joint memorandum to Putrajaya with regard to how the revenue collected from Tourism Tax should be distributed among three regions – Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

In this respect, Abdul Karim said Sarawak and Sabah had already expressed their dissatisfaction over the matter, in that both state governments came up with their own funds to run tourism promotion.

Moreover, he said both states had hoped to have more returns from the tax collection.

“Tourism Malaysia, unfortunately, had not really been promoting Sabah and Sarawak. That’s the reason why Sarawak Tourism Board was formed – to do promotion. The objective of tourism tax is to promote tourism,” he stressed, expressing his scepticism on whether hotels would be ready for the Tourism Tax, of which the enforcement would take effect from this Sept 1.

Abdul Karim said the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, as the collecting arm, would need to brief properly the hotel operators on the tax implementation.

“Proper information needs to be relayed down. I’m not too sure whether Sept 1 is sufficient (in terms of time). If the directive is already given, the hotels would have to comply with it (nonetheless),” he said.

It is learnt that the Customs Department officials would meet representatives of the Malaysian Association of Hotels Sarawak Chapter this Aug 22 regarding this matter.

The federal Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz announced on Aug 8 that the Tourism Tax would be enforced this Sept 1, and this taxation would only apply to foreign tourists.

Nazri was also quoted as saying that Malaysia should be collecting about RM210 million in revenues from the tax annually.