THE Finance Ministry (MOF) has told the Customs Department to cancel the policy to enforce liquor licences for the sale of alcoholic beverages in restaurants and coffee shops, Wee Ka Siong said.

The MCA president said he had personally contacted Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz on the matter.

“He (Tengku Zafrul) had confirmed that the MOF had indeed cancelled the directive and had promised to instruct the Customs Department to abide by this decision,” he said in an Instagram post today.

The post was accompanied by a letter from the Treasury’s Tax Department secretary Che Nazli Jaafar informing the Customs department of the decision.

It was reported that starting January 1, the Customs Department requires coffee shops to obtain a separate licence to sell beer.

This is on top of the signboard, cigarette and business licences that coffee shops are required to get.

Wee said that he had immediately acted on the matter when it was raised by the Malaysia-Singapore Coffee Shop Proprietors General Association president Wong Teu Hoon.

“Wong had approached me and Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Lim Ban Hong when the association received the circular on the requirement of a liquor licence for selling alcohol.

“We immediately got to work to handle this issue with the Finance Ministry.”

He said that in November, some restaurant and coffee shop owners in certain states were invited to attend briefings by the department.

“They had been instructed to apply for liquor licences from the department, which had caused an uproar.

“Three weeks ago, I once again spoke to Tengku Zafrul on this matter.”

Wee said that on November 23, MOF had issued an official letter to instruct the department to cancel the implementation of making liquor licences compulsory for selling alcoholic drinks.

“This is because MOF had in 1977 authorised the menteri besar and chief ministers in each state to handle this matter through the Licensing Board under the respective local governments.

“The Customs Department is part of the Licensing Board of each state and it has no power to instruct restaurant coffee shops to apply for liquor licenses.”

He added that the Finance Ministry then had cancelled the circular issued on April 7, which requested business owners to apply for liquor licences from the department before December 31.

“Malaysia is a multiracial and multi-religious country; non-Muslims have the right to drink alcohol and this must be respected.” – December 7, 2021.