Tourism and Culture Minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the repayment of the tax would be made fairly, based the percentage of tourism tax collected in each state.

He added that the payments would be made directly to the state governments every three months.

“Every state can use the allocation to develop its own tourism sector, especially for the promotion and marketing of destinations, organising tourism events, human resource development, and small-scale tourism projects,” he said.

He was responding to a question by Anthony Loke (DAP-Seremban), who wanted to know how much tourism tax had been collected since its implementation on Sept 1 last year.

According to Nazri, the government had collected RM39,975,634 in tourism tax from Sept 1 to Dec 31.

“Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest collection at RM16,625,258, followed by Sabah RM4,530,628; Penang RM3,881,655; Pahang RM3,473,803 and Johor RM2,716,739,” he said.

Replying to a supplementary question by Mansor Abdul Rahman (BN-SIK) on whether the tourism tax had affected tourist arrivals to the country, Nazri said no.

In fact, he said, tourists had welcomed the collection of the tax.