I most welcome the stand taken by Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun and his assistant minister Pang Nyuk Min, against the Federal Tourism and Culture Ministry’s proposal to impose a tourism service fee on hotel rooms.
However, in order to settle the issue once and for all, the State should be brave enough to take back its power on tourism by proposing an amendment to the Schedule 9 of the Federal Constitution in the coming Parliament sitting.
The Federal’s plan is to impose a Tourism Services Fee (TSF) of between RM5 and RM30 per room, per night on anyone who stays at a hotel or serviced apartment — be it a foreign or local tourist – to raise revenue and promote tourism. The fee collection, due to come into effect on Sept. 16, will be based on the star rating of the hotel and will be in addition to other fees/taxes levied such as those in Melaka, Penang and Langkawi.
When the Federal Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, said, “Even if we decide to impose levy on Sabah hotels, we can do it, as tourism falls under federal (jurisdiction).”, he in fact has only highlighted the point that tourism fell under federal jurisdiction.
However, it is wrong for Nazri to comment that “it is not taking away the state’s power, not even devolution because we are not doing this outside the constitutional requirement.”
The historical fact is that, tourism has always been under the state jurisdiction before, and that the so-called federal power has taken over it after Parliament amended Schedule 9 in June 1994. In Sabah context, it happened after the then PBS state government toppled down by Barisan Nasional.
According to “The Constitution of Malaysia: A Contextual Analysis”, authored by academician Andrew Harding, “The single significant amendment to Schedule 9 relates to the issue of tourism, which was added to the Federal List in 1994; this was slipped into a major constitutional amendment relating to other issues and without consultation with the State Governments, which had their own tourism initiatives. However, States have not been prevented, in practice, from promoting tourism.”
Clearly, it is not enough for Sabah and Sarawak Governments to just take a common stand against the Federal’s proposal to impose a tourism service fee on hotel rooms.
The Borneo States Government should pass a resolution in each state assembly respectively, to demand the Federal Government to return the power related to tourism to the two autonomous states.
If the Parliamentarians from the ruling party in the Borneo States failed to convince the government to amend Schedule 9, then parliamentarians from Borneo should consider proposing a private member bill, to make tourism under state jurisdiction again.
In anyway, if there is ever a need to impose a tourism fee on hotel rooms in Sabah, the State Government should be the one rightly to have the right to collect it and decide how to use it for the state’s tourism promotion or development.
Let’s look at the figures. According to Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA), 10 percent of the State’s income is derived from 3.2 million tourists which it’s 65% is domestic arrivals, spending RM6.6 billion a year. Estimation for the Tourism Service Fee will see additional RM58 million payable to the Federal, on top of the existing RM368 million generated from Sabah tourism industry in GST payable to Federal coffer.
We understand that Federal tourism allocations to Sabah amount to only RM58 million yearly. Why should we collect extra fee which would jeorpadise the tourism industry prospect but payable to Federal as they only return back tiny amount of allocations compared with the huge contributions we have made? It is ridiculous for power over centralized Putrajaya to collect tax in the expense of State’s resources!
It’s time to tack back the state’s jurisdiction over the tourism. For the benefits for Sabahan and betterment for Malaysia, we need to decentralize fiscal power from Putrajaya to State. If BN Sabah dare not do so, it’s meaningless even if we have rejected the Federal’s plan successfully this round. Bear in mind, the resources grabbing Putrajaya won’t stop here.