Hint: Tax and more tax 
With 4 long weekends next year, many of us may consider taking a short overnight trip to Penang or JB for some good food and affordable shopping. You know the drill: Head to the Woodlands or Tuas checkpoint and one hour later, you’re in JB. After a couple of hours of shopping and good food, you’re ready to check in to your hotel for a restful night.
But wait, did you know about the new Tourism Tax in Malaysia? The first reading of the proposed Tourism Tax Bill 2017 was held in the Dewan Rakyat (Malay for House of Representatives) yesterday. While the second and third reading of the bill are slated in the current session that ends tomorrow, we do know a bit about the bill:
“A tax to be known as tourism tax shall be charged and levied on a tourist staying at any accommodation premises made available by an operator at the rate fixed by Minister in accordance with Section 8.”
The tax rate will be fixed at a later stage by the Finance Minister, with the concurrence of the Tourism Minister.
To clarify, each accommodation premise requires only one tax payment, not one from each tourist. “Where more than one tourists are staying in the same accommodation at the same time and the tourism tax has been paid by any one of the tourists, the other tourists staying shall not be liable to pay the tourism tax,” the bill stated.
In the case of an offence, the proposed act empowers a senior officer of customs under the Criminal Procedure Code or Act 593 for the purpose of enforcement, inspection and investigation. In addition, the Immigration Department is able to prevent any person from leaving the country if he or she owes tourism tax or penalties to the government.
On top of the existing checkpoint and toll charges imposed on tourists driving into Malaysia, the tourism tax is something we should consider when planning our weekend getaway.
I’ll leave you with a quick breakdown of current charges for visitors from Singapore to Malaysia:
