KUALA LUMPUR | The Immigration Department will continue imposing RM10,000 as the extension levy for foreign workers until the Home Ministry announces a new rate, director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud said.
He said he was informed that the new rate is still being gazetted by the ministry and he is awaiting approval to use it.
“Until then the new rate cannot be used,” Khairul was quoted as saying by The Star.
The government in February agreed to reduce the extension fee for foreign workers with more than 10 years working experience in Malaysia starting March.
It was done to help alleviate the burden of employers.
The reduction will affect workers in the manufacturing, services, construction, agriculture and plantation sectors from March 2019 till February 29, 2020.
For manufacturing and construction workers, the fee was lowered from RM10,000 to RM6,000; for the plantation and agriculture sectors, it will go from RM3,500 to RM2,000.
Dzaimee said there will be no refunds for payments before the gazetted date and he asked for patience from all parties regarding the new rates implementation.
“It will be done soon, we are just waiting for it to be gazetted,” said Khairul without offering a timeline.
In September last year, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng initially said that the government decided foreign workers with over 10 years’ working experience in Malaysia will pay 80 per cent while their employers pay 20 per cent of the levy fee, for a three year extension.
The decision was met with dismay as many workers considered their portion of the fee to be exorbitant.
Lim later said employers would have to pay the entire RM10,000 levy, which shifted the unhappiness to this side instead.
