No date set on tourism tax implementation in S’wak — Abg Johari

KUCHING: Sarawak is still not sure when it will implement the tourism tax.

Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state would have to do its own preparation first before it could go ahead with the implementation.

“We don’t know yet when we can implement it (tourism tax). We have to do our own preparation.

“Only when preparations have been made are we able to implement it. But even then, its implementation will take into consideration the hoteliers as well.

“We need to refer to the agreement between the hotels and their clients. We will discuss it later,” he said to reporters during his visit to the Hari Raya open house hosted by Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof at the latter’s residence here yesterday.

The Chief Minister said this when asked to comment on a report by a national Malay daily yesterday that Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz had confirmed that the tourism tax scheduled to commence on July 1 will be postponed to August 1 in order to prepare its implementation mechanism.

Meanwhile, a news portal also reported that Nazri had confirmed that local tourists who choose to stay in hotels rated three- stars and below will be exempted from the tax.

However, foreign tourists will need to pay for the tax regardless of their choice of hotels.

On Sunday, Abang Johari said negotiation on the methodology of disbursing the revenue from tourism tax collection was still ongoing.

He said that negotiations would also touch on whether to exempt hotels rated three-stars and below from the tourism tax.