KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) launches Goods and Services Tax (GST) manual for its 3,200 members.
Titled GST Navigator for Travel Industry Manual, the 229-page book is aimed at providing tour agents, especially the small-medium operators, the necessary information to cope with the newly-implemented tax.
Its president Hamzah Rahmat said the book was a collaborative effort by the association, tax experts and that it served an addition to Customs Department’s GST Guide on Travel Industry.
“Various discussions were held to identify issues and grey areas in the implementation of GST on tourism products.
“One of the main issues highlighted by the operators is the implementation of GST on the flight tickets. There were a lot of confusions that we aimed to clear with the use of this manual,” he said at the launch held Berjaya Times Square Hotel earlier.
He said sessions were also held to train members on the GST implementation on tour packages.
He said among the decisions made following the meetings Customs include having Langkawi, Labuan and Tioman (designated areas) classified as “No GST” areas and addressing the issue of profit mark-up on sale of overseas flight tickets for agents acting as principal.
The book was written by Matta vice president for Inbound Datuk Tan Kok Liang and tax experts Kenneth Yong Voon Ken and Lee Fook Koon.
Also present were Customs GST director Datuk Subromaniam Tholasy, Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyab and Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun.