Malaysia has scrapped plans to double an annual tax that restaurants and factory owners pay for employing migrant workers following fears that employers might lay off nearly 400,000 people. -- PHOTO: REUTERSKUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia) - MALAYSIA has scrapped plans to double an annual tax that restaurants and factory owners pay for employing migrant workers following fears that employers might lay off nearly 400,000 people, news reports said on Saturday.
Human Resources Minister S. Subramaniam said the Cabinet has deferred the hike indefinitely because businesses were struggling with economic uncertainties, The Star and New Straits Times newspapers reported.
The government had said in March that it would double the yearly levy for each migrant worker to 3,600 ringgit (S$1,500) to curb the country's reliance on foreign workers and to enable unemployed Malaysians to fill potential vacancies.
Human Resources Ministry officials could not immediately be reached on Saturday.
The plantation and construction sectors would have been exempted from the hike, but employers had warned that food outlets were at risk of shutting down and laying off some 375,000 workers because they cannot afford the extra costs.
Malaysia employs more than 2 million foreign labourers, mainly from other Asian countries such as Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Myanmar. Many of them work in low-paying menial jobs shunned by Malaysians. -- AP
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