PUTRAJAYA: Fifty per cent of the returns from tourism tax will be distributed to all state governments in the first quarter of this year.
In a statement today, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said this will be done as promised in the 2019 Budget, adding that the accounting for the returns of the 2018 tourism tax will be finalised soon.
He also said that as of now, there has never been a distribution of tourism tax from the federal government to the state governments.
“Legally, revenue from tourism tax belongs to the federal government. Therefore states cannot claim the tax revenue,” he added.
His statement came following claims by Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah that the federal government still owed Sarawak around RM2.7 million in tourism tax.
Abdul Karim also said on Jan 3 that Sabah state had received its returns from the tourism tax.
Sternly denying this, Lim said Abdul Karim also said the returns were the rights of Sarawak and that the federal government should pay it.
“As a responsible and professional Sarawak minister, he shouldn’t have accused and threatened the federal government.
“The Finance Ministry stresses that no state including Sabah has received any distribution of the tourism tax as alleged by Abdul Karim.
“The federal government doesn’t take sides and distribute the tax returns to only selected states,” he said.
In the last budget tabling , Lim said the federal government would share with the state government 50 per cent of the tourism tax collected.
He said the state governments were able to receive additional revenue amounting to about RM50 million because tourism activity was enhanced.
Lim said this measure reflects on the new government led by Pakatan Harapan taking initiatives to respect other states.
He also expressed disappointment over several Sarawak state leaders who had made baseless accusations against the federal government, to purposely instigate and upset the Sarawak people. The tourism tax claims were a recent allegation.
“It is not right for the Sarawak state government to say that the federal government owed it money, and in fact, as of Nov 30, the state still owes the federal government more that RM2.5 billion, with an overdue of almost RM50 million.
“Considering that Sarawak has big reserves, why not pay off the debt to the federal government?” he asked.