Its deputy president, Oh Tong Keong, said it had seen letters from the government sent to the company offering the tax exemption on the revenue from the concert and asked whether there was favouritism in this matter.
“How is it that this company gets a special tax exemption? In a worsening economy, Penang’s assessment rates have gone up.
“At the federal level, they have imposed all sorts of taxes, but this company appears to have some special tax-free exemption.
“So why do the rakyat have to pay taxes when the company is exempt from entertainment duties?
“Exemption of taxes or duties are under the finance ministry. So I would like to ask its minister, Lim Guan Eng, his views on this issue,” he said in a statement today.
Oh showed a letter dated June 25 from the tourism, arts and culture ministry to WGW Entertainment Sdn Bhd.
In that letter, the ministry said it was “ready” to give the company tax cuts, provided it follows rules set out in the Income Tax Act 1967 and had applied for it formally through a dedicated ministerial form.
Oh said it had also obtained a letter showing that the tourism, arts and culture ministry had allowed them to use the Tourism Malaysia logo in the event. The ministry had earlier denied giving them permission to use the logo.
FMT has reached out to the finance ministry for comments and is awaiting its reply.
Mandopop stars David Tao and Shin were scheduled to perform at the Setia Spice Arena last Saturday (Sept 21). However, the concert was called off at the last minute, after the singers did not get their payments in full.
The Taiwanese pop stars’ managers said they had only received half of their payment, while another half due to them before the event had not been received.
The managers also claimed that a fake telegraphic transfer snapshot dated Sept 12 was sent to them by WGW Entertainment Sdn Bhd’s (WGW) lawyer and hence the artistes’ decided to pull out from the concert.
WGW’s managing director Hendrik Huang then wrote an open letter apologising to the concert-goers, saying that a lawyer keeping the money in an escrow account had gone missing.
He said the company would refund all who had bought the tickets earlier through an announcement on Sept 30 and another company would take over their future events.
The Star reported that WGW had paid the lawyer RM3.8 million in July and another RM3 million this month to be kept in an escrow account, quoting a concert organiser, Lai Kong Hooi, who had left the company last week.
He told the daily he got to know about the missing funds on the day of the concert (Saturday).
Tao and Shin later said they would hold a free concert for their fans on a date to be announced soon. Their local manager has lodged a police report over the non-payment of funds.
WGW is also reportedly behind three major concerts in Penang featuring Michael Learns to Rock, Beyond of Hong Kong and the Air Supply World Tour 2019 in December.