KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has yet to receive its 50 per cent share of the tourism tax revenue, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
She was responding to a statement by Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah that Sabah had received its share of the tax revenue.
Based on estimates by Sabah Tourism Board, she said the state was owed RM12.5 million for last year.
Liew, who is also Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister said the state was also owed RM2.2 million for the period from Sept 1, 2017, to Dec 31, 2017.
“On Sunday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Federal Government has yet to distribute any tourism tax revenue to the state governments as far as the 2018 tourism tax collection is concerned,” she said after launching the Api-Api Community Development Leader Unit (UPPM) office, here, today.
“Lim had said that the distribution of 50 per cent of the 2018 tourism tax revenue will be made in the first quarter of 2019.
“We (Sabah) are looking forward to receiving our share.”
Under the revised Tourism Tax Act 2017, tourism tax was implemented on Sept 1, 2017.
Each foreign tourist is charged RM10 per room a night for all classes of hotel accommodation, including hostels, hotels, inns, rest houses, and lodging houses.
Liew said there were more than 11 million hotel rooms in the country, and 25 per cent were in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The tourism tax revenue channelled back to the states is meant for funding tourism promotion efforts, refurbishing tourism facilities and building tourism infrastructure.
“We have plans for what we are going to do. But, until we get our share, we are not going to announce (the plans) yet.
“For sure 2019 is going to be exciting as we are looking into different areas of tourism such as sports and medicine,” Liew said, adding that Sabah tourism was expected to flourish with more tourists visiting the state.
The Api-Api assemblyman said the newly launched UPPM office would serve as a service centre for Api-Api constituents.
She said there would be four full-time staff and there were plans to set up an online data system to allow the public to view information, such as the amount of funds spent on projects.
“We want to be transparent. This year, all funds under us (Api-Api) will be systematically used for my constituency.”