In an about turn, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced on 25 September 2018 that the government has reverted to its initial plan for employers to pay the full RM10,000 annual levy to extend the employment of skilled foreign workers beyond 10 years.
Just a day before, Lim announced that employers would pay 20 percent of the annual levy, while the migrant workers would bear the remaining 80 per cent.
“However, they (the migrant workers) complained they could not pay their portion amounting to RM8,000, so the government has decided to revert to the original levy structure whereby the RM10,000 payment is borne fully by the employer,” he said.
“If the employers do not want to pay the RM10,000, they can first send the migrant workers home and then re-employ them as new workers. So the levy that needs to be paid is only RM1,850.”
On 29 August, the Cabinet had agreed to give leniency for employers to retain, for a maximum of three years, their skilled migrant workers who have been holding the Temporary Employment Visit Pass (PKLS) for the past 10 years.
The policy will take effect on 1 October 2018. — Construction+ Online
