Although supportive of tax exemptions, one-off incentives and the blanket moratorium, two tourism industry groups have expressed their problems with the Pemulih plan announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.
Malaysian association of theme park and family attractions (MATFA) president Richard Koh said a freeze on all statutory payments such as licence renewals, annual fees, routine vehicle inspections for tourist buses, and other government fees should be implemented until Dec 31.
He said that with the tourism sector contributing only RM12.6 billion last year compared to RM66.1 billion in 2019 – a drop of 81% – it was clear that the pandemic had been hard on the industry.
Koh said while a RM1 billion Penjana loan was made available for the tourism sector, it had not been utilised well, with only RM65 million disbursed to 327 applicants. He said the loans should be managed by the tourism, arts and culture ministry, not a panel of 12 banks as practised now.
Ideally, the ministry should also be the sole agency on all initiatives for the tourism sector, so as to ease the process of getting help.
Koh said he hoped theme parks, attractions, playlands, spas, cinemas and family entertainment centres in shopping malls could open again in the second phase of the national recovery plan.
“These businesses need to at least claw back something when we see domestic tourism returning and movements becoming less restricted. Many businesses won’t be able to reopen as the losses have been too much to bear in (the past) 16 months,” he said in a statement.
Another group representing hotels said the loan moratorium should be interest-free, and that the present 10% electricity bill discount was too low, at a time when most hotels were barely meeting 20% occupancy during the lockdown.
Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) president N Subramaniam said the Pemulih plan did not address the specific needs of the hotel and tourism industries. He said the main grouse was electricity bill discounts which remained at 10% when hotels were barely getting any business.
He said the RM3,000 one-off incentives being offered to travel and tour operators were not extended to hotel operators, although they too suffered from cash flow issues.
Subramaniam said the four-month wage subsidy was also unclear as the last two months of the incentive would be offered to those unable to operate during the MCO. He said hotels were not on the negative list and ideally should be included.
He, however, welcomed the government’s decision to extend the wage subsidies to those earning above RM4,000.
Subramaniam added that a levy exemption under the Human Resources Development Corporation was also unclear, as the exemption was meant for those not operating during the MCO. Hotels had been excluded, he said.
“The industry welcomes the blanket loan moratorium that should provide much-needed relief to not only tourism and hotel businesses but more importantly the people of the industry. The moratorium however should be interest-free to ensure borrowers do not fall into deeper debts,” he said.