Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Ministry is exploring innovative ways to access various sources of funding for its programmes. One of the suggestions is to use a portion of the government’s sin tax revenue.
“We need access to different types of taxes, sin tax especially,” said Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh (main image).
“If you look at other countries, they can invest a lot in sports because of their revenue from sin taxes. That’s not something we have access to, because our financing is through the Finance Ministry.
“While the Finance Ministry has been very supportive and there have been increments through the years, it is not enough.”
In the last national budget, sports received RM245 million from the government.
Meanwhile, gaming company STM Lottery Sdn Bhd, formerly known as Sports Toto Bhd, contributes 10 per cent of its pre-tax profits to the National Sports Council (NSC) annually. According to STM Lottery’s 2024 annual report, the company contributed RM42.7 million to the NSC last year, up from RM32.9 million in 2023.
Billions in revenue are collected annually from the lottery, tobacco, and liquor sectors. A report published on the Finance Ministry’s website showed that from 2010 to September 2021, the government collected RM20.11 billion in excise duty from liquor products alone, with an average annual collection of RM1.68 billion. However, the smuggling of tobacco and liquor has hurt revenue collection.
The proposed use of sin taxes for various purposes – including sports – has drawn criticism from some quarters, including members of the opposition.
Besides sin taxes, Yeoh said another way to attract corporate sponsors is for national associations to get their house in order.
“When you choose officials to run your sports association, you must elect those who can contribute and help the association grow,” she said when asked how associations can attract corporate sponsors.
“As Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tan Sri Norza (Zakaria) says, these officials shouldn’t be ‘jaguh kampung’ (local heroes). You need those who have access to the outside world and can use those connections to help the association.
“That’s why we are happy to work with people such as Datuk Mark Ling (Malaysian Athletics vice-president), who helped bring German athletes to train in Malaysia.”
Yeoh was speaking at an event to commemorate the end of a three-week training stint by a 50-member contingent from the German Athletics Association.
Malaysian athletics has had a nearly three-decade relationship with its German counterparts. Former local athletes such as Noraseela Khalid (400m hurdles), Moh Siew Wei (100m hurdles), Malik Tobias (decathlon), Zaiful Zainal Abidin (400m), and Nauraj Singh (high jump) were among those who have trained in Germany.
Ling said he hopes to see more such training camps in the future.
