The Anti-Fake News Act and the Peaceful Assembly Act are related to PH’s promise to uphold the rule of law and democracy
by ALIFAH ZAINUDDIN / pic by RAZAK GHAZALI
PARLIAMENT passed 34 Bills into law this year, including a historic unanimous decision to amend the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age to 18. The number is slightly above the five-year average, which sees between 30 and 40 Bills passed per Parliament session each year.
About half the Bills were passed in the final sitting between October and December — the longest of the three meetings this year — out of which three involved legislation to boost government coffers.
Others such as the Anti-Fake News (Repeal) Bill 2019 and the Peaceful Assembly Act (Amendment) Bill 2019 were related to Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) election promise to uphold the rule of law and democracy.
The Malaysian Reserve looks at some key Bills that were passed in Parliament this year:
Service Tax (Amendment) Bill 2019
Lawmakers approved the Service Tax (Amendment) Bill 2019 in April, which provides for the taxation of digital services. The 6% service tax, which comes into effect on Jan 1 next year, applies to foreign-service providers which provide content and services to Malaysian consumers.
The Royal Malaysian Customs Department’s Service Tax Industry Guides defined digital services as “services that are delivered through information technology medium with minimal or no human intervention from service provider”.
These services include music, video, streaming services and digital ads involving brands such as Netflix, Spotify and Stream. The service tax aims to neutralise the cost disadvantage faced by physical retailers against their virtual storefront counterparts, especially those operated by foreign entities.
Ride-hailing apps Grab, Facebook and Google Malaysia has since announced that a 6% digital tax will take effect on their respective services starting next year. Tax revenue is expected to increase by over RM2.4 billion a year from the tax should all foreign digital service providers register for the duty.
Foreign service providers are required to register for service tax in Malaysia if they exceed or are expected to exceed a RM500,000 supply threshold in a 12-month period. Failing to comply with the new requirements will result in a fine up to RM50,000, imprisonment for up to three years, or both.
Departure Levy Bill 2019

Effective Sept 1 this year, a departure levy of RM8 is charged on economy class passengers and RM50 on business class flying from Malaysia to Asean destinations. (TMR FILE PIX)
The Dewan Rakyat had also passed the Departure Levy Bill 2019 in April which sees outbound air travellers paying an additional fee depending on the destination and travel classes.
The legislation states that any person leaving Malaysia will be taxed and the operator of any carrier shall collect the levy on behalf of the government.
Effective Sept 1 this year, a departure levy of RM8 is charged on economy class passengers and RM50 on business class and business suite passengers flying from Malaysia to Asean destinations.
Meanwhile, passengers flying all other international destinations beyond Asean will be charged with a departure levy of RM20 for economy class and RM150 for business class and business suite.
This comes on top of the RM73 passenger service charge already imposed by airports. The departure levy is expected to add between RM900 million and RM1 billion to the government’s annual revenue.
Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019
The sitting in July witnessed lawmakers endorse changes to the Federal Constitution to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18. The Bill tabled by PH, who does not hold a two-thirds majority (the required votes to pass such amendments), saw 211 MPs endorsing the amendment with no objection. The last amendment to the constitution was made a decade ago.

The Bill to amend the Constitution was 1st tabled on July 4 by Syed Saddiq. (Pic by MUHD AMIN NAHARUL/TMR)
The passing of the Bill will pave the way for 7.8 million new eligible voters to vote in the next general election, which must be called no later than 2023. By then, it is projected that the number of voters will rise by 50% to 22.7 million from 14.9 million in the 14th General Election in 2018.
Prime Minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad described the passing of the Bill as a “new era” for Malaysia as all MPs came together and voted in favour of the Bill. The PH government has also fulfilled one of its election manifestos with the passing of this Bill.
The Bill to amend the Constitution was first tabled in Parliament on July 4 by Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman. Opposition MPs had publicly expressed support for the Bill in general but included a caveat.
The minister subsequently withdrew the initial Bill and re-tabled a revised Bill on July 11 to include two additional terms, namely the automatic registration for those who have reached the age of 18 and reducing the age of candidacy to 18.
Anti-Fake News (Repeal) Bill 2019
The Anti-Fake News Act was finally repealed after a successful second attempt made by the PH government in October. The Bill had to be tabled again following a one-year cooling off period as it was rejected by the Barisan Nasional coalition-controlled Dewan Negara in 2018.
Under Article 68 of the Federal Constitution, the Bill cannot be rejected again as the upper house cannot block what has been approved by MPs for a second time. Even if there is an attempt to block it in the Senate, the Bill will automatically be passed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for approval.
According to the Bill, the provision to repeal Act 803 was due to a change in government policy which stated that fake news can be tackled with existing laws including the Penal Code (Act 574), Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (Act 301), and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588).
During the parliamentary debate, Deputy Minister in the PM’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin stressed that the government was committed to repealing the Act because it did not want anyone to be victimised by the law. He said the Act contained draconian elements that can be abused.
Only one person was charged and punished under the Act under the previous administration. No cases were tried under PH’s rule.
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