KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) government is urged to emulate its Sarawak counterpart in demanding to defer enforcement of the Tourism Tax, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1.
Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin said a resolution should be passed in the state assembly to demand the returning of the power in tourism back to Sabah and Sarawak.
The Sri Tanjong assemblyman also opined that the Borneo States should make a joint stand on the Tourism Tax Bill that was passed in Parliament last April in line with the autonomy that both states enjoy on certain matters.
He reminded Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun that he had said “Sabah and Sarawak would take a common stance” on this issue, when he was winding up his speech in the State Assembly sitting in April.
“Since Sarawak has spoken out loud and clear that they want to have consultation and discussion with the federal government on the matter before the enforcement of the tourism tax there, Sabah should take the similar stand. The Sabah state cabinet should convene their meeting as soon as possible to decide on the next move.”
It was reported that prior to passing of the Tourism Tax Bill 2017, the Sabah Cabinet had rejected it on grounds that the move would hurt the State’s tourism industry, which has been one of the biggest contributors to its economy. The industry is also the only one that employs the most locals.
“The State Government should continue to take a firm stand on this matter. We don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. From the feedback by the majority of the tourism players, we have more to lose from imposing the tax on tourists than any funding cutbacks from the Federal Ministry. Sabah is not ready for the tax,” said Chan in a statement yesterday.
However, he said it is not enough for the Sabah and Sarawak governments to just take a common stand against the federal government’s proposal to impose a tourism service fee on hotel rooms. According to Chan, the Borneo state governments should pass a resolution in their state assembly respectively, to demand that the federal government return the power related to tourism to the two autonomous states.
“The Sarawak Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, has pointed out rightly that, when Malaysia was formed in 1963, tourism was not under the federal list, state list and concurrent list, but placed in the residual list where the matter were to be deliberated and discussed between the state and federal governments. However, tourism was included in the Ninth Schedule in 1994 and being placed under federal list since then.
“That’s why Federal Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz can act arrogantly in this issue. The State Governments in the past have failed their duties for being not bother to negotiate with the Federal Government when such a major constitutional amendment was made in 1994. Now we should correct the wrongs,” he said.
If there is ever a need to impose a tourism fee on hotel rooms in Sabah, the state government should be the one rightly to have the right to collect it and decide how to use it for the state’s tourism promotion or development, he added.
The Tourism Tax Bill 2017 tabled by Nazri was approved by majority votes during the last session of the Parliament sitting.
Nazri has said that the tax would be able to bring in an income of about RM654.62 million if there was a 60 per cent occupancy rate at over 11 million hotel rooms in the country.