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The Malaysian Government announced an allocation of 20 million ringgit in Budget 2022 for esports today, as part of measures to grow the industry in Malaysia.
In the budget, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz said that they would be allocating 20 million towards esports, though it came with a catch: 5 of that 20 million would be in the form of an excellence center for Drone Sport, which apparently count as esports now.
As Lowyat.Net reported, if you deduct the drone racing allocation, the esports allocation is actually the same as last year. Given the circumstances, it’s good to know that they aren’t backing down on previous plans to improve esports in the country, though there’s also the problem of no increased budget meaning they have no plans to increase the investment.
It should be noted, that no specific plans were mentioned for the remaining 15 million- while having a budget allocation is good, some sort of plan would be even better, since you’d be able to gauge actual commitment to building the local esports scene.
That being said, there was one more directly effective measure introduced in Budget 2022 as well- a tax exemption for winnings from esports tournaments. This would be more directly beneficial for athletes, seeing as they’d be allowed to keep all their winnings instead of having to pay a tax on them.
While it won’t do much to get more people into esports, it will make getting into it a more rewarding venture, due to the tax exemptions.
