Johor to consider introducing bed tax if there is a need

Editor's note: Bernama has withdrawn an earlier version of this story and issued an update. The story has been updated accordingly.

The Johor government will consider introducing a bed tax to be imposed on tourists who stay in hotels in the state, if there is a need for it.

However, Liow Cai Tung (above), the chairperson of tourism, women, family and community development committee, said at present, there was no plan to introduce the tax.

“This is because there is the return of the RM10 tourism tax from 2018, amounting to RM7.99 million, which is 50 percent of the total collection of the tax,” she said when replying to a question from Sharifah Azizah Syed Zain (BN-Penawar) and Ng Yak Howe (Harapan-Bentayan) at the Johor state assembly sitting in Iskandar Puteri today.

Sharifah Azizah and Ng had asked about the allocation provided to increase tourist arrivals in Johor and the amount of tourism tax returned to Johor since last year.

Liow said last year, Johor collected RM15.8 million in tourism tax, making it the fourth highest state after Sabah, Penang and Selangor.

She said the tourism tax was collected by the Customs Department under the Tourism Tax Act 2017 where RM10 is imposed on foreign tourists staying in a hotel.

On March 27, the federal government through the Finance Ministry distributed 50 percent of the 2018 tourism tax collection to the state governments. Johor received RM7.99 million.

“The 50 percent of the tourism tax is a new allocation to the states known as tourism grant,” she said, adding that it was aimed at enabling the tourism and culture sector to promote the tourism industry.

- Bernama