PETALING JAYA, Jul 31 – Sarawak wants the Tourism and Culture Ministry to explain why its share of the tourism tax collected from foreigners visiting Malaysia has been reduced to RM1 for every RM10 collected. Originally the total collection was to be divided equally among Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah, Sarawak’s Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said.

“This (equal distribution among the three regions)was proposed by the federal Tourism and Culture Minister (Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz) himself and later by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Why suddenly reduced it to RM1 for every RM10 per room per night collected from each state?” he was quoted by The Borneo Post as saying yesterday.

Nazri recently said that his ministry planned to return RM1 for every RM10 in tax per room per night collected to the state governments for the purpose of promoting tourism. Abdul Karim said he fully agreed with the statement by his counterpart from Sabah Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun for Sarawak and Sabah to be given a more equitable share of the tourism tax.

Masidi said both states had been carrying their own tourism promotion over the years at their own cost and hoped this would be taken into account in the division of this revenue from the tourism tax. “Since this tourism tax is meant for promotion of tourism, both Sarawak and Sabah should not be equated like the other states in Malaysia when it comes to the division of this tax,” Abdul Karim said.

Pocket News

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