Renewal of licence
(1) Every licensed tourism enterprise or licensed tourist guide shall submit an application to the Commissioner in such form as may be determined for the renewal of his licence at least thirty, but not more than sixty, days before the date of expiry of the licence and such application shall be accompanied with such documents and information as may be required by the Commissioner.
(2) The prescribed fee shall be payable upon approval of the application.
(3) If any licensed tourism enterprise or licensed tourist guide has no intention of renewing his licence, the licensed tourism enterprise or licensed tourist guide shall advertise his intention at least thirty days before the expiry of the licence in at least one national daily Bahasa Malaysia and English newspaper for at least three consecutive days.
(4) Without prejudice to any other grounds, the Commissioner may refuse to renew a licence where the requirements of subsection (1) is not complied with.
Lost licences
(1) Where a licensed tourism enterprise has lost its licence, it shall immediately notify the Commissioner in writing of the loss.
(2) Where a licensed tourist guide has lost his licence or his authorization card, he shall immediately notify the Commissioner in writing of the loss.
(3) Such licensed tourism enterprise or licensed tourist guide shall submit an application for a replacement licence or authorization card, as the case may be, accompanied by all such information and documents as may be required by the Commissioner together with the prescribed fees that may be imposed.
Power of Minister to make regulations
(1) The Minister may make such regulations as he may consider expedient for the purposes of this Act.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), regulations may be made for any of the following purposes or matters:
(a) the prescription of documents and information to accompany any application for a licence;
(b) the duration and conditions of licence, and the manner and procedure for its renewal;
(c) the fees to be paid for any licence and any other fees which are required to be prescribed under this Act;
(ca) the purchase of insurance policy by the licensed tour operator, or the making of a deposit in the form of cash or bank guarantee to the Commissioner;
(d) the procedures of entry into and inspection of premises;
(e) the keeping of proper books, accounts and records by the licensed tourism enterprise and the form and mode of the same;
(f) regulating the establishment and management of tourism training institutions, including the prescription of course content and training programmes, books or materials to be used, the standards to which the institutions shall conform, the granting of permits by the Commissioner for lecturers and instructors, the qualifications of lecturers and instructors, the examinations to be conducted and the certificates or such other qualifications to be awarded;
(g) the offences which may be compounded and the procedure for compounding such offences;
(h) the forms of any register, notice or order required to be kept, issued or made under this Act and the procedures for the service of such notices or orders;
(ha) to provide for the classification and reclassification of tourist accommodation premises and the rating of such premises by the Commissioner;
(i) the conduct of or the carrying on of any business or service relating to tourism enterprises or tourist guides and the standards of performance to be maintained by them and the granting of exemptions by the Commissioner to any tourism enterprise or tourist guide from any requirement imposed by regulations made under this paragraph; and
(j) any other matter which is required by this Act to be prescribed.
Obligation of secrecy
(1) Except for the purposes of this Act, no person who has access to any record, book, register, correspondence, information, document or other material whatsoever obtained pursuant to the provisions of this Act shall disclose such record, book, register, correspondence, information, document or other material to any other person.
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both.
Inaccurate declaration, etc.
Any person who makes, orally or in writing, signs or furnishes any declaration, return, certificate or other document or information required by this Act which is untrue, inaccurate or misleading in any particular shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both.
General penalty
Any person who fails to comply with or contravenes any provision of this Act for which no specific penalty is expressly provided shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both, and in the case of a continuing offence, shall, in addition, be liable to a daily fine not exceeding five hundred ringgit for each day the offence continues to be committed.
Liability of directors, etc.
(1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a company, any person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, secretary, manager or other officer of the company or who was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be punished accordingly unless he proves that the offence was committed without his consent or connivance and that he exercised such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his function in that capacity and to all the circumstances.
(2) Any person who would have been guilty of an offence if anything had been done or omitted to be done by him personally shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to the same penalty if such thing had been done or omitted to be done by his officer, agent or servant in the course of his business unless he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or consent and that he took all reasonable precautions to prevent the doing or omission to do such thing.
(3) Nothing in subsection (2) shall relieve any such officer, agent or servant from any liability for an offence.
Power to compound offences
(1) The Commissioner may compound any offence under this Act which is prescribed to be a compoundable offence by requiring a person reasonably suspected of committing the offence to pay a sum of money not exceeding fifty per cent of the amount of the maximum fine to which that person should have been liable if he had been convicted of the offence.
(2) An offer under subsection (1) may be made at any time after the offence has been committed but before any prosecution for it has been instituted, and where the amount specified in the offer is not paid within the time specified, or during such extended period as may be granted by the Commissioner, prosecution for the offence may be instituted at any time thereafter against the person to whom the offer was made.
(3) Where an offence has been compounded under subsection
(1), no prosecution shall thereafter be instituted in respect of the offence against the person to whom the offer to compound was made.
Authorized officer
(1) The Minister may authorize in writing any public officer to exercise the powers of enforcement under this Act.
(2) Any such officer shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code [Act 574].
(3) In exercising any of the powers of enforcement under this Act, an authorized officer shall on demand produce to the person against whom he is acting the authority issued to him by the Minister.
Power to investigate
In any case relating to the commission of an offence under this Act, any authorized officer making an investigation may exercise all or any of the special powers in relation to police investigation in seizable cases given by the Criminal Procedure Code [Act 593].
Power to examine witnesses
(1) An authorized officer making an investigation under this Act may examine orally any person supposed to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case and shall reduce into writing any statement made by the person so examined.
(2) Such person shall be bound to answer all questions relating to such case put to him by such officer:
Provided that such person may refuse to answer any question the answer to which would have a tendency to expose him to a criminal charge or penalty of forfeiture.
(3) A person making a statement under this section shall be legally bound to state the truth, whether or not such statement is made wholly or partly in answer to questions.
(4) An authorized officer examining a person under subsection (1) shall first inform that person of the provisions of subsections (2) and (3).
(5) A statement made by any person under this section shall, whenever possible, be reduced into writing and signed by the person making it or affixed with his thumb print, as the case may be, after it has been read to him in the language in which he made it and after he has been given an opportunity to make any correction he may wish.
Admissibility of statement
Notwithstanding the provisions of any written law to the contrary, where a person is charged with an offence under this Act, any statement, whether the statement amounts to a confession or not or whether it is oral or in writing, made at any time, whether before or after the person is charged and whether in the course of investigation under this Act or not and whether or not wholly or partly in answer to questions, by the person to, or in the hearing of, the authorized officer and whether or not interpreted to him by an authorized officer or any other person concerned or not in the case, shall be admissible at his trial in evidence and, if the person tenders himself as a witness, any such statement may be used in cross-examination and for the purpose of impeaching his credit:
Provided that—
(a) no such statement shall be admissible or used as aforesaid—
(i) if the making of the statement appears to the court to have been caused by any inducement, threat or promise having reference to the charge against such person proceeding from a person in authority and sufficient in the opinion of the court to give the person charged grounds which would appear to him reasonable for supposing that by making it he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in reference to the proceedings against him; or
(ii) in the case of a statement made by the person after his arrest, unless the court is satisfied that he was cautioned in the following words or words to the like effect:
“It is my duty to warn you that you are not obliged to say anything or to answer any question but anything you say, whether in answer to a question or not, may be given in evidence.”; and
(b) a statement made by any person before there is time to caution him shall not be rendered inadmissible in evidence merely by reason of his not having been cautioned if he is cautioned as soon as possible.
Search with warrant
(1) Whenever it appears to any Magistrate upon written information on oath and after any enquiry which he may think necessary that there is reasonable cause to believe that in any premises or place there is being committed an offence against this Act, the Magistrate may issue a warrant authorizing any authorized officer, by day or night and with or without assistance, to enter the premises or place and search for and seize or take copies of all books, accounts, or other documents which contain or are suspected to contain information as to any offence so suspected to have been committed or any other things relating to the offence.
(2) Any such officer may if it is necessary so to do—
(a) break open any outer or inner door of the premises or place, and enter thereinto;
(b) forcibly, enter the premises or place and every part thereof;
(c) remove by force any obstruction to enter, search, seizure and removal as he is empowered to effect;
(d) detain every person found in the premises or place until the premises or place has been searched; and
(e) where the premises or place is used for carrying on or operating a tourism enterprise without a licence, seal the premises or place.
Search without warrant
Whenever it appears to any authorized officer that there is reasonable cause to believe that in any premises or place there is concealed or deposited any books, accounts or other documents which are suspected to contain information as to the commission of an offence under this Act or any other thing relating to the offence and if he has reasonable grounds for believing that by reason of the delay in obtaining a search warrant the books, accounts, other documents or things are likely to be removed, the officer may exercise in, upon and in respect of the premises or place all the powers mentioned in section 44 in as full and ample a manner as if he were authorized so to do by a warrant issued under that section.
List of things seized
(1) The authorized officer seizing any books, accounts, documents or other things under this Act shall prepare a list of the books, accounts, documents or other things seized and forthwith deliver a copy signed by him to the occupier or his agents or servants present in the premises or place of seizure.
(2) The list referred to in subsection (1) shall not be treated as a statement, admission or confession made by the occupier or his agents or servants in the course of the investigation and shall be admissible in evidence.
Additional powers
Any authorized officer shall, for purposes of the execution of this Act, have power to do all or any of the following:
(a) to require the production of records, accounts and documents kept by a licensed tourism enterprise or licensed tourist guide and to inspect, examine and copy any of them;
(b) to require the production of any identification document from any person in relation in any case or offence under this Act;
(c) to make such inquiry as may be necessary to ascertain whether the provisions of this Act are complied with.
Obstruction of search, etc.
Any person who—
(a) assaults, obstructs, hinders or delays the authorized officer in effecting any entrance which he is entitled to effect under this Act, or in the execution of any duty imposed or power conferred by this Act;
(b) breaks any seal that has been affixed by an authorized officer on any premises or place;
(c) fails to comply with any lawful demand of an authorized officer in the execution of his duty under this Act; or
(d) refuses or neglects to give any information which may reasonably be required of him and which he has it in his power to give,
shall be guilty of an offence.
Conduct of prosecution
Every authorized officer shall have the authority to appear in court and conduct any prosecution in respect of any offence against this Act.
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Source: Laws of Malaysia, Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia (lom.agc.gov.my). Not a copy of the Gazette printed by the Government Printer (Interpretation Acts 1948 and 1967, s 61).
