Nepalis in Malaysia not liable for levy

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RAMESH SHRESTHA

KATHMANDU, SEP 18 - The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has stopped providing foreign employment permits to individuals who agree to pay a levy to the Malaysian government in their work contract.

Issuing a notice to all the associated stakeholders, the DoFE said that the decision had been effective since Sept. 15.

Mohan Krishna Sapkota, director general of the DoFE, said that as per the new decision of the Malaysian government, only the recruiting companies in Malaysia will be responsible for paying the workers' levy and it will not come out of their salary.

"Thus, no such contract agreeing to pay the levy by the workers themselves will be permitted," he said.

Malaysia, where around 400,000 Nepali migrant workers are working, made this decision last April.

According to the DoFE, it had stopped issuing approvals to such candidates after receiving the direction from the Nepal Embassy in Malaysia, which works to ensure the rights of workers and reduce their financial burden.

Foreign employment entrepreneurs said that the decision by the Malaysian government was praiseworthy as it helps reduce the financial burden of Nepali workers there.

Earlier, as per the labour contract signed between Nepal and Malaysia, Nepali workers had to pay Ringgit 100 as levy per month and the basic salary was only Ringgit 481.

Tilak Ranabhat, president of the Nepal Foreign Employment Agencies Association, said that the foreign employment agencies had been encouraged by this provision.

"Now Malaysia has also agreed to fix the basic salary at Ringgit 546," he said.

Malaysia has an estimated three million foreign workers from South Asia, including Nepal, India and Bangladesh and from neighbouring Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Kumud Khanal, managing director of Fusion International, a foreign employment consultancy, claimed that the Malaysian government had made the decision to attract more Nepali workers to the country as it started to receive less human resources from other major workforce supplying countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia.

He said that demand for workers in the furniture, food and plastics industries was increasing with the salary ranging between Ringgit 750 to 1,000. "These sectors have not been affected even during financial crisis," he said.

He said that it was the right time to send more qualified workers to Malaysia and lobby for further increasing the salary.

Meanwhile, the DoFE has also stopped issuing employment approvals for house maids and construction workers for Malaysia after the direction from the Nepal Embassy. Now onward, besides women applying for foreign employment in Malaysia, even individuals applying to work as security guards have to get their necessary documents attested by the Malaysian Embassy in Nepal.