KUALA LUMPUR: Sepang International Circuit (SIC) are still hoping that the Selangor government will waive the entertainment tax on tickets to the Petronas Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Oct 21-23.
The ticket sales for Sepang's flagship event used to be good in previous seasons, but are slow this year due to a number of factors. To date less than 50 per cent of the tickets have been sold.
SIC were forced to raise ticket prices this year due to increasing costs apart from the 25 per cent tax levied on tickets.
SIC chief executive officer Azhan Shafriman Hanif plans to meet Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari to discuss the matter.
"In previous years, the Federal government waived the entertainment tax for the Malaysian GP, but this year they asked us to negotiate it with the state government," said Shafriman.
"In 2019, when the event was last held here, tickets for the hill stands cost roughly RM40-RM50 apiece but now it is almost double that, and one of the contributing factors is the 25 per cent entertainment tax.
"Prices for the grandstands used to be around RM200, but have now gone up to RM300.
"We have written to the state government for the tax to be waived. If we can get the waiver, the prices of hill stand tickets will go down to about RM60-70."
Sepang attracted a record 170,000 fans over three days during the 2019 Malaysian GP. On race day, 103,850 fans turned up.
"In general, we are confident of reaching the 170,000 mark because we have a good product (event) which we believe in.
"The recent announcement of Syarifuddin Azman as one of the wild cards for Moto3 this year should help attract more local fans to come and watch the race." said Shafriman.
Shafriman and delegates from SIC, including Syarifuddin, paid an official visit to Balai Berita in Bangsar today. Also present during the meeting were Berita Harian and New Straits Times group editors Datuk Ahmad Zaini Kamaruzzaman and Ahmad Lokman Mansor as well as Harian Metro executive editor (content) Safar Ahmad.