Government has no plan to cancel tourism tax
KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has no intention of cancelling the tourism tax imposed on foreign tourists since Sept 1 last year.
Its Deputy Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik said based on their assessments, tourism tax, which was also implemented by other countries such as the United States, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore and Indonesia, had proven to have a positive impact on the tourism sector over the long term.
“The tax that was introduced on Sept 1 last year under the provisions of the Tourism Tax Act 2017 only applies to foreign tourists, therefore it would not burden the local people,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday.
He was answering a question by Khoo Poay Tiong ( DAP-Kota Melaka) who wanted to know whether the government wanted to review or cancel the tax.
Muhammad Bakhtiar said the tax rate charged per room per night was only RM10 or equivalent to USD2.50 or Euro2.10.
“It is at the minimal rate and does not burden foreign tourists. So far we received no complaints from foreign tourists,” he said.
He said based on the figure received from the Customs, RM146 million was collected from the day it was implemented to last June.
He added that the proceeds were used for more aggressive promotion and marketing of the country’s tourism sector, to maintain tourism infrastructure and empowered the arts, culture and tourism activities across the country. — Bernama