Malaysia’s medical tourism sector continues to expand as rising numbers of foreign patients seek affordable and high-quality healthcare services in the country, despite the implementation of the six per cent sales and service tax (SST) on private healthcare.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said private hospitals in Penang, Johor and the Klang Valley remained key attractions for international patients, reflecting Malaysia’s growing competitiveness as a regional healthcare destination.
“Medical tourism is still strong. If you come to Island Hospital in Penang, quite a lot of its patients are actually from overseas because Malaysia still provides reasonable and very good healthcare,” he said.
He said hospitals in Johor and the Klang Valley were also seeing rising demand from foreign visitors seeking medical treatment, adding that the sector remains a growing area that should continue to be supported.
Amir Hamzah said the government had introduced exemptions where necessary following the expansion of SST to private healthcare services to ensure the measure would not place excessive burden on the rakyat.
He said the SST expansion was aimed at strengthening the government’s revenue base and improving fiscal space.
“The collections that we get from SST are put in the Consolidated Fund, so we use it to support the fiscal spending of the government,” he added.
Amir Hamzah added that targeted exemptions had also been introduced in areas with clear public health objectives, citing the sugar tax increase last year which was intended to support interventions related to diabetes and kidney diseases.
