Malaysia’s interim prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced under the 2020 Economic Stimulus Plan to mitigate the impact of the CoronaVirus on the local tourism industry includes a tax relief and cash aid to promote spending for domestic tourism.
According the Tun Dr Mahathir, Malaysians will get to enjoy a personal tax relief of up to RM 1000 for spending related to domestic tourism and each eligible Malaysian will also get RM 100 digital voucher for domestic tourism which can be utilized for domestic flights, rail and hotel accommodation.
A budget of RM 500 million is allocated for these vouchers and matching grant for tourism promotion.
To assist tourism related business, the government is deferring the monthly tax installment payments and affected businesses will be allowed to revise their profit estimates for 2020 with respect to the monthly income tax installment payment without penalty. The government also announced a 15% discount for electricity bills for hotels, travel agencies, airlines, shopping malls, convention and exhibition centers. Hotels will also be exempted from the 6% service tax beginning March until August 2020.
