Tourism Tax Introduced to Pay Back RM250 Million Debt Incurred by Tourism Board

Just when we thought the government is done draining the rakyat’s money with all sorts of taxes implementation, the Tourism Tax Bill was passed by the parliament. This means that tourists, both local and foreign now have to pay a little bit extra for their accommodation.

But why it is only implemented now? Why not ten years ago? There’s a very good reason for that ladies and gentlemen.

According to FMT, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture was allegedly forced to introduce the rakyat-burdening tax in order to cover up the RM250 million deficit incurred by the Tourism Board, as reported by China Press.

In fact, the financial management of the board was so poor that it was described as ‘spending money like a running tap’. I wonder who they learned that from.

Since the ministry couldn’t settle the bill, they approached the federal government and even sought help from the finance ministry. But the finance ministry turned a cold shoulder to Tourism Board.

Who are you?

Source: Newmandala

Since many of the tourism programmes were not well-planned and operated on an ad-hoc basis, they were much more expensive to run. Not to mention that the cost of running ad-hoc programmes were excluded from the annual budget. Then what’s the point of having annual budget?

Besides, the Tourism Board had also failed to control their expenses when promoting tourism in countries like China and Japan. And this had been going on for two long years.

“The Tourism Board may look grand from the outside. But inside, it is ’empty’ and they owe money to a lot of suppliers,” according to China Press.

Due to their tight situation, the Tourism Board had no choice but to push through the Tourism Tax Bill asap without consulting the industry players. So you guys messed up and the rakyat had to pay for it. 

The tax implementation date was even carried forward to July 1 instead of August 1.

Implementing new tax is definitely not the best solution for this problem, sound financial management is. What’s your thoughts on this guys? 

Also read: If You’re Planning to Visit Bangkok This October, Here’s Why You Should Reconsider