Sabah collected RM4.5 million in tourism tax during the first four months of implementation until December last year.

In total, the federal government collected RM39,975,634 in tourism tax since its implementation on Sept 1, last year, said Tourism and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz at the Dewan Rakyat on Monday, 12 March.

Sabah collected the second highest tourism tax with RM4,530,628 after Kuala Lumpur with RM16,625,258. The rest of the states are Perlis RM10,962; Kedah RM827,998; Penang RM3,881,655; Perak RM471,191; Selangor RM2,028,827;; Putrajaya RM1,846,970; Negeri Sembilan RM987,257; Melaka RM1,334,165; Johor RM2,716,739; Pahang RM3,473,803; Terengganu RM298,319; Kelantan RM56,514; Labuan RM60,290; and Sarawak RM879,058.

Nazri said each state would receive RM5 for every RM10 collected. This, he said, marked an increase from the RM1 rate the states had previously received.

"Each state can use this allocation to develop their own tourism sector, especially in aggressively promoting their destinations, organising tourism events, human capital development and small-scale tourism development projects" he said.

Nazri said the payment would be made every three months, channelled directly to the respective state governments.

He was responding to a question from Loke Siew Fook (DAP-Seremban) who had asked him to state the details of tourism tax collected by the ministry every month since its implementation.