KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — The Malaysian government can provide tax relief and tax rebates to the local inbound tourism industry, which would be faster than going through the process of providing direct subsidies for fuel costs, the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) said today.
MITA president Mint Leong today offered this suggestion as a long-term policy targeted at helping only licensed travel operators.
Leong said it might be more difficult to work out direct diesel subsidies from the government to local tourism operators, adding that using tax mechanisms would be a quicker method.
“So I think this is the quickest, we take a shortcut — rebate subsidy to tourism agencies, as tour agencies hold permits for buses and vans,” she said at a press conference here.
Under this proposed method, she proposed that the Inland Revenue Board provide tax relief or tax reductions during annual tax declarations, and said this should apply to legitimate or licensed tour agents and tourism transport operators.
She said tourism operators would, for example, have to record the total number of trips and the tourists they have transported, and claim tax relief.
She also said the government could use the existing e-Invoice system to determine the scale of local tourism players and draw up more precise tax relief or subsidy measures.
In the same press conference, Leong highlighted that tour buses and tour vans use diesel.
She said tourism transport operators are struggling to cope with rising costs and could no longer afford to absorb ongoing diesel price hikes resulting from the Iran war.
Apart from her proposed shortcut of using tax relief and tax reductions, Leong also announced MITA’s new maximum price hike for tour buses and tour vans of up to 80 per cent.
She also urged the government to provide direct diesel subsidies of 3,000 litres for tour buses and 2,500 litres for tour vans.