Chong Chieng Jen
KUCHING: State DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen has described the talk by Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz that the Tourism Tax collection will be used to promote Malaysia overseas as “utter rubbish”.
Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP, explained that the money collected from the Tourism Tax will go into the federal government’s Consolidated Fund.
“This money goes into Consolidated Fund. At the end of the day, every year in the Budget, the government will allocate a sum of money from the Consolidated Fund to various ministries.
“Therefore, all this talk (by Nazri) that the Tourism Tax will be collected so that we can promote tourism overseas, is utter rubbish, especially coming from a ‘senior minister’ (like) Nazri. You can fool maybe a novice or rookie but as a seasoned politician, you (Nazri) don’t say things like that,” he said at a press conference here Tuesday.
Chong was commenting on Nazri’s statement that the money collected from the Tourism Tax will be used to promote Malaysia overseas and to refurbish tourism facilities.
“So you mean that before you collect this tax, you didn’t promote tourism in Malaysia overseas? You still, isn’t it? Don’t tell me before collecting this tax, you have not been making promotions for tourism overseas?”he questioned.
The Tourism Tax will come into force on July 1.