From January 7th, 2019,
Japan will levy a departure tax of approximately 1,000 yen (about RM38) per
person for passengers who board or leave the country, regardless of
nationality. This is the first time the Japanese government has introduced a
new tax in 27 years.
According to comprehensive
reports, the Japanese government imposed 1,000 yen (about RM38) for each
departing passenger, for foreigners including Japanese and Japanese visitors.
Passengers departing by aircraft
are currently only imposed on the airport taxes. There will be an additional
departure tax from January 7th, 2019. However, passengers who
purchase tickets (air tickets or ferry tickets) before January 7 are not
affected by the departure tax.
The following types of
people do not have to pay the departure tax, such as passengers who leave the
country within 24 hours after entering the country, international passengers
who have to temporarily enter due to bad weather, children under 2 years old,
foreign ambassadors, national guests, etc.
The Japanese government
expects to collect 50 billion yen (about RM1.9 billion) in taxes for the 2019
annual tax levy, which will be used to enrich the sightseeing environment.
These include the installation of a face recognition system that shortens the
time of entry and exit in the airport, the provision of multilingual commentary
equipment at the sightseeing venues and the promotion of “cashless” checkout.
In the Budget 2019, the
Malaysia government recommended that departure tax be levied on all passengers
flying abroad on June 1 to encourage local tourism.
Finance Minister Lin
Guanying pointed out that there are two types of departure taxes. Passengers
flying to ASEAN countries will be charged RM20, while those flying to other
countries will be RM40.
He said that the fees for
the proposal are the same, and there is no need to impose higher departure
taxes in other countries and regions, such as Hong Kong charged USD 15, Japan charged
USD 10 and Thailand charged USD 20.
News from - < Orientaldaily >