THE Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) is urging incumbent Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz to be upfront in his efforts to help tourism businesses which are currently in extreme financial distress.
In this regard, the Finance Ministry (MOF) needs to be specific in its allocation to not only preserve tourism business and workers but to prepare and empower the industry for a major comeback, according to MATTA president Datuk Tan Kok Liang.
In 2019, Malaysia received 26 million foreign tourists with a revenue of RM89.1 bil, exceeding the exports of palm oil at RM70 bil and rubber gloves at RM22 bil.
“Don’t ignore the industry now just because borders remain closed and because there is not much tourism activity,” lamented Tan.
“Our companies are in bad shape due to regulatory constraints imposed by the Government while other countries are recovering at a faster rate in their battle against COVID-19.
“As borders have remained closed for the last 18 months and with just a small travel bubble for Langkawi, we plead with the Finance Minister to provide targeted assistance for tourism businesses and workers who are directly affected.”
This includes providing an extension of the wage subsidy and automatic bank loan moratorium and waiver of interest at least until year-end for borrowers directly impacted by the pandemic.
Tan said many industry players are currently burdened by bank instalments and interest with no revenue as they have taken business loans in 2020 in anticipation that the Government will overcome the pandemic when in actual fact many tourism activities remain restricted.
“How are we to sustain? The irony is that while the greater economy suffers, financial institutions are recording billions in profits during the pandemic!” he lamented.
“MOF needs to provide practical financial assistance beyond tax incentives or tax rebates or deferment of tax instalments which we are unable to benefit from because tourism companies have already accumulated tax losses in 2020 and 2021. By now, we have more than enough tax losses to offset any ‘so called forecasted profits’.”
Meanwhile, MATTA welcomed the recent statement by former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng who recently reminded the Government not to leave the tourism industry aside.
Lim had urged the Government to provide further subsidies to workers in the tourism industry, waive their bank loan interests during the moratorium as well as to provide grants and subsidies on rentals and utilities to businesses that had survived last year’s RM100 bil in losses.
“We have the potential to recover swiftly to bolster the national economy but does the Finance Minister have the same confidence? We urge him to announce direct and accessible financial support in the National Budget 2022 next month,” added Tan. – Sept 21, 2021
