KUCHING: The Sarawak Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts (MTCP) continues to establish close cooperation with the federal Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) in terms of the implementation of tourism tax.
Sarawak Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said currently the tourism tax is still under the federal list in the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution but the tourism sector involves other states, especially Sarawak.
“They need Sarawak, and that’s why we can work well with the federal government, especially when it comes to tourism and not making a big deal out of the tax issue,” he told the media after officiating at the Kuching Park Hotel-First Smart Digital Hotel here on Tuesday (Feb 21).
Abdul Karim opined that the tourism tax is just a small component which will not easily affect Sarawak.
“Tourism tax will not easily affect us as Sarawak has managed to collect income from its diverse resources such as oil and gas and many others,” he said.
Abdul Karim said the Sarawak government would definitely review several matters involving the state under the federal list, including the Continental Shelf Act 1966, the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 and others.
“This is the way I see it. But in terms of tourism, we will work together because they (federal government) need us and we also need them,” he stressed and refused to elaborate on the issue.
In 2019, former MOTAC minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri revealed that Sarawak had received more than RM5mil in tourism tax distribution for the year.
She said the distribution was also from 50 per cent of the tourism tax collection in the state in 2018.
However, due to Covid-19, the government had previously implemented a tourism tax exemption from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
