10 August, 2019
The Departure Levy Bill was passed in Dewan Negara on 8 May 2019, received Royal Assent on 3 July 2019 and subsequently gazetted as the Departure Levy Act 2019 (“the Act”) on 17 July 2019. The following provisions, i.e. Part I, Part II, Part IV, section 17, section 18, section 31, Part VII, Part VIII except for section 37, Part IX, Part X and Part XI came into force on 1 August 2019. Simultaneous with the coming into force of the Act, the following Orders and Regulations also came into force:
- Departure Levy Regulations 2019 (except for Part III)
- Departure Levy (Exemption) Order 2019
- Departure Levy (Compounding of Offences) Regulations 2019
The remaining provisions in Part III, Part V except for sections 17 and 18, Part VI except for section 31 and section 37 to the Act will come into force on 1 September 2019. The effective date for the charging and levying of the departure levy also falls on 1 September 2019 together with the following Orders and Regulations:
The key highlights of the Act are as follows:
Territorial and extra-territorial application (s. 2)
The Act applies both within and outside Malaysia and also applies to foreign operators. An “operator” is defined in the Act as any person who operates any vehicle to carry any person leaving Malaysia and “foreign operator” means any person, who operates any vehicle to carry any person leaving Malaysia, but who has no business or place of business in Malaysia.
Imposition of departure levy (s.9)
Any person who leaves Malaysia by using any carrier made available by an operator shall pay a departure levy. The operator shall collect the departure levy at a rate of which shall be fixed by the Minister in accordance with section 11 of the Act. According to the Departure Levy (Rate of Departure Levy) Order 2019, the rate of departure levy are as follows:
| Country/Class | ASEAN Countries | Other than ASEAN countries | ||
| Economy class | Other than economy class | Economy class | Other than economy class | |
| Rate of departure levy | RM8 | RM50 | RM20 | RM150 |
Failure to pay the departure levy is an offence that is punishable with a fine not exceeding RM500,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both.
The full article can be found from Zicolaw's site here.
For more information, please contact:
Ahmad Zulkharnain Musa, Partner | ZICO Insights Law
ahmad.zulkharnain@zicolaw.com
