Brian Gomez, the co-owner of live music venue Merdekarya in Petaling Jaya, welcomed the waiver but said the pandemic-hit industry needed more than such stopgap measures to survive.
“All this does is defer the problem to a later date,” he told FMT.
He called on the government to engage immediately with members of the arts community and representatives of local councils to find a permanent solution.
“We don’t want to have to go through this all over again in December,” he said.
Gomez said the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) should follow suit and waive its host of licence fees it levies on the industry.
Gomez has to pay an annual entertainment licence fee of RM4,705 to MBPJ for a piped-music licence, a live music licence, an entertainment premises licence and an administrative fee.
He also has to fork out RM3,600 in entertainment tax to the Selangor state government, in addition to the tax on tickets.
On Friday, Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari said the decision to grant the temporary waiver was made after public feedback on the tax’s implementation, including from those in the industry.
Arts coalition ReformARTsi representative Arief Hamizan said he was happy that lawmakers had paid attention to the struggles that artistes are facing, but like Gomez said he was worried this would only be a temporary measure.
“Will artistes have to band together and campaign again for exemptions every year?
“At the end of this exemption period, the Selangor government must institute a way to distinguish and exempt performing arts activities from commercial activities,” he told FMT.
“We cannot return to the practice of taxing the performing arts and other similar mediums as a commercial enterprise.”
When asked what the tax waiver meant for local artistes, Arief said it gave artistes all across Selangor the chance to get themselves back on their feet after years of hardship.
He also noted that the government must see this as a primary step in developing more supportive and equitable structures for artistes to work in Selangor.
“This should not be the end of the matter,” he said.
“I hope the Selangor government continues to listen to and engage with artistes in the coming months, especially about how the entertainment tax is implemented beyond 2022.”