THE 50% share of tourism tax is unfair for Sabah as Putrajaya earns much more when tourists spends money in the state, said Christina Liew. 

The Sabah deputy chief minister said Putrajaya also earns other forms of taxes and levies when visitors spend in Sabah on top of the tourism tax generated from a levy on hotel rooms. 

“Whatever they charge to the visitors from the tax, they only return half to us. When tourists come to Sabah, they spend on a lot of things but all the taxes go back to federal. 

“But they only return half of the hotel room levy,” she said in Kota Kinabalu today. 

Under article 112D, all revenue collected by Putrajaya from Sabah, 40% must be returned to Sabah in the form of revenue entitlement or special grant. 

However, in Budget 2020, Pakatan Harapan only doubled the amount to RM53.4 million from what was paid by the previous government at RM26.7 million. 

The total revenue collected from Sabah is done by a federal agency and Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal previously noted that the state has no way of finding out how much Putrajaya collects from it.

Such taxes differ from the tourism tax where tourists are charged RM10 one time upon checking into their hotel room. 

Last year, Sabah recorded booming numbers with the tourism industry hitting a record RM8.342 billion from 3.879 million arrivals.

Putrajaya returned an RM12.8 million tourism tax share to Sabah for the same period.

Among others, Liew also plans to raise in Parliament the right for the state to issue permits and licences related to tourism, instead of the federal Tourism and Culture Ministry. – October 13, 2019.