Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has unequivocally denied in Parliament Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong’s allegations that his Ministry had revoked the liquor licence requirement for restaurants and coffee shops to sell beer and alcohol as untrue. Zafrul said the power to license or exempt retail premises like coffee shops and restaurants from selling beer or alcoholic drinks is up to the respective State Licensing Authority.
What Zafrul said about the new policy of delegating the power to license or exempt retail premises to the respective State Licensing Authority is consistent with the Customs Department letter on 16 August(attached) which stated that the previous postponement of enforcing such licensing on 20 September 1993 has been withdrawn. Customs’ previous practice in 1993 of postponing the enforcement of such licensing has allowed coffee shops and restaurants to sell beer and alcoholic drinks without paying license fees of up to RM1,300/-.
By withdrawing the postponement and leaving to the respective State Licensing Authority to decide, coffee shops and restaurants in states heavily influenced by the extremist PAS will be burdened with additional licensing costs of up to RM1,300/-. Despite being proven as telling a falsehood by Tengku Zafrul, Wee still refused to admit that he deliberately misled the public when he showed a letter from the Customs Department dated 9 December cancelling its previous circular on 16 August 2021(attached).
Wee is again trying to mislead the public because the latest Customs’ letter did not say that they were revoking the Finance Ministry’s new policy of delegating to the State Licensing Authority to decide whether to impose licensing for beer and alcohol sales to coffee shop and restaurants, but that Customs will not proceed with enforcing the licensing. Hence, Customs said what was delivered during the briefing on 16 August 2021 is cancelled or revoked.
Clearly, the new policy is not cancelled or revoked, only what was said during the briefing by Customs is revoked. In other words, the previous policy of postponing the enforcement of licensing for coffee shops and restaurants is not reinstated but will be replaced by the new policy of delegating the power to the respective State Licensing Authority to decide. Instead of falsely announcing the directive requiring licensing is revoked and resolved, Wee should be pressing the Finance Minister to reinstate the previous practice in 1993 of postponing the enforcement of licensing.
Wee Ka Siong should stop deceiving the public when the Finance Ministry directed the Customs Department to revoke its previous briefing but not revoke the new policy of delegating to the respective State Licensing Authority the power to decide whether to license the sale of beer and alcoholic drinks by restaurants and coffee shops. So far only the PH state governments have stated that they will not disrupt the current practice and therefore not require licensing of the sale of beer in restaurants and coffee shops.
If the previous policy of postponing enforcement of licensing is not reinstated, will Wee bear full responsibility for any additional costs and inconvenience faced by coffee shops and restaurants when some state governments impose the licensing requirement? Only when the Finance Minister exercises his powers to postpone enforcement of licensing, can the restaurant and coffee shop operators not face the penalty for selling liquor without a license of a RM50,000 fine under Section 76 of the 1976 Excise Act.