Hotels, resorts must display separate room and tourism tax rates

MIRI: Hoteliers must now display the newly introduced Tourism Tax rate separately from the room rates with the implementation of the Tourism Tax, effective today.
Malaysian Association of Hotels (Sarawak Chapter) honorary secretary-general John Teo Peng Yew said with the implementation of the new procedure, hotel and resort operators need to adhere to the new ruling following a meeting with the Finance Ministry and the Customs Department recently.
"No exemption for long stay, complimentary stay such as timeshare or loyalty programme and such tax shall be free of GST," he said in a statement here today.
Effective today, foreign tourists staying at hotels and resorts in Malaysia would be charged a flat rate of RM10 per room per night.
He said exemption of tourism tax is for local and permanent residents of Malaysia staying at hotels or resorts in the country.
He said permanent residents must hold MyPR cards to be eligible for exemption.
"Tourism tax is only applicable for foreigners who are staying at hotels and resorts in Malaysia," he said adding that hotels need to spend about RM5,000 to update the accounting system to add another column for the tax payment in their system.
As such he said, the cost of implementation, replacement or enhancement of the system would be tax deductible and there will not be any additional subsidy.
For exemption of contracted rate, he said, the exemption was by application only and up to March 31, 2018 while applications can be submitted to zainab@motac.gov.my — Bernama