{"id":187,"date":"2020-02-28T15:47:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T15:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/?p=187"},"modified":"2020-02-28T15:50:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T15:50:55","slug":"economic-stimulus-package-timely-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/?p=187","title":{"rendered":"Economic stimulus package timely boost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian\nAssociation of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) is delighted with the RM20\nbillion Economic Stimulus Package announced by Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr\nMahathir Mohamad on Thursday, which will help mitigate the impact to the\ntourism industry that has been severely affected by Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MATTA president Datuk Tan Kok Liang said in a statement: \u201cThe comprehensive package covers many sectors, including requests made by MATTA and key stakeholders for the tourism industry, such as discount for electricity bills; lowering the minimum contribution to the Employees Provident Fund; exemption of the Human Resource Development Fund levy; banks to provide financial relief on payment moratorium comprising restructuring and rescheduling loans across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also included are special\nloan for small medium enterprises for working capital; property owners to lower\nrental rates; matching grant for tourism personnel training; subsidy to enhance\ndigitals skills and marketing; personal income tax relief of up to RM1,000 on\nexpenditure related to domestic tourism although MATTA had asked for RM2,000,\nhe added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe personal income tax\nrelief up to RM1,000 for domestic travel is fantastic to rejuvenate the local\ntourism industry. MATTA proposed the eligibility be limited to tour packages purchased\nfrom companies licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and these\ndomestic tours can be for resident taxpayer, spouse or children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are gratified with the\ncompassion shown to tourism frontliners severely impacted by the Covid-19\noutbreak as taxi drivers, tourist bus drivers, tourist guides and registered\ntrishaw drivers will be given a one-off payment of RM600. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 Economic Stimulus\nPackage certainly lives up to its theme of \u201cBolstering Confidence, Stimulating\nGrowth and Protecting Jobs,\u201d Tan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, MATTA had\nidentified the same three-prong approach which is now incorporated in the package.\nThey are to mitigate the cash flow crunch, assist those severely impacted and\nto stimulate demand for travel and tourism. The MATTA Fair Cuti-Cuti Malaysia\nto be held on April 4-5, 2020 was swiftly organised to promote domestic travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are happy on the\ndeferment of monthly income tax instalment payments for businesses in the\ntourism sector, exemption of 6 per cent service tax for hotels, digital\nvouchers for domestic tourism of up to RM100 per person for domestic flights,\nrails and hotel accommodations for all Malaysians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough MATTA had requested several other measures, such as granting free visas to Indian tourists and double tax deduction  for local companies for sending staff to meetings, incentive tours, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) events, to be included in the economic stimulus package, the priority now is for all to start working on recovery measures. With concerted efforts, it will be much swifter\u201d, Tan concluded.-HS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) is delighted with the RM20 billion Economic Stimulus Package announced by Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday, which will help mitigate the impact to the tourism industry that has been severely affected by Covid-19. MATTA president Datuk Tan Kok Liang said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holidaysabah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}