Foreign workers: A month's grace to pay levies

"After a month, these foreign workers will be required to pay their levies.
And it is at this time that they will be required to pay fees for a multiple
entry visa," Home Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid told reporters yesterday.

<p>&quot;Other than that, the Government is not charging them anything for them
to come back and work here nor have we established any consortium on our side
to handle the legalisation process of all these workers,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>Instead, Azmi said the Government hoped the quick return of the workers would
translate into better profits for local companies and, therefore, more corporate
taxes. </p>
<p>He was commenting on reports that the Indonesian government was charging their
workers Rp2.99mil (RM1,290) for various services rendered to help smoothen their
legalisation process at the 11 centres set up in Indonesia for this purpose.
So far, five of these 11 centres have started operating. </p>
<p>The Jakarta government, through newspaper advertisements, had announced the
fee, which was purportedly for payment of passports, visas and other services
provided by Indonesian officials. </p>
<p>Azmi said the fees were still &quot;lower&quot; than the amount these workers
would be required to pay their tekong (middlemen) should they want to try their
luck and come here illegally. </p>
<p>&quot;In fact, we believe that these fees will help to cut out the role of
the middlemen altogether in the recruitment of foreign workers. </p>
<p>&quot;I will ask Indonesian Manpower and Transmigration Minister Fahmi Idris
on the fee structure when he comes here on Saturday,&quot; he said. </p>
<p>The Indonesian authorities would be sending two ships to Port Klang on Monday
to help transport the thousands of Indonesian illegal workers hoping to make
it back home before the Ops Tegas begins on March 1 (Tuesday), he added. </p>
<p>The Philippine government’s officials had also approached him on the possibility
of setting up similar centres to speed up the legalisation process for their
workers in the Philippines.