Malaysia slaps levy on salaries

Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia will have to pay a levy of TK 1,000 to 4,000 a month from now on.
The Malaysian Cabinet made a decision to impose levy on all foreign workers yesterday, according to a report on Star Online of Malaysia.
The decision is to be enforced with immediate effect on new foreign workers and those wishing to renew their work pass, employment pass or temporary work visit pass.
Begum Shamsoon Nahar, director general of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training in Bangladesh, confirmed the news.
“We had requested the Malaysian government not to impose levy on Bangladeshi workers. But now that the Malaysian cabinet has made the decision, the workers would have to pay it," she told The Daily Star.
Collection of levy from foreign workers was introduced in 1992 in Malaysia and was fully borne by the workers until 2009 when the government decided to shift the burden to the employers.