PARLIAMENT | The government was told to separate "sin" taxes from the consolidated fund so that only halal money is used to pay the salary of civil servants.

This proposal was mooted by Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang) during the committee stage debate of Budget 2019 at the Dewan Rakyat today.

"We know that the country obtains billions of ringgit from gaming licences and gambling operators," she said.

"While I want to congratulate the government for reducing special draws, we hope all these (sin) taxes will be separated from normal revenues," said Siti Zailah (photo).

"This is because we want the consolidated fund used to pay the wages of the civil servants to come from halal sources," she added.

She suggested that the sin taxes be channelled to the development fund.

The sin tax collected by the government after introducing special draws in 1999 has increased from RM80.4 million in that year to RM238 million in 2017, an average RM200 million increase annually.

The Pakatan Harapan government has agreed to reduce the special draws next year.

The government plans to increase casino license fees from RM120 million to RM150 million per year, while it looks to raise casino duty to 35 percent of gross collection. 

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