Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
By Mohd Noor Firdaus Mohd Azil
KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 (Bernama) — The Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) regards the action of the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) in issuing directive CP38 (deduction of additional tax on instalments) from June 16 as untimely and burdensome.
Its president, Azih Muda said the existing method of schedular deduction of tax (PCB) was enough to financially burden the group of 1.4 million workers.
“The existing deduction imposed on civil servants though PCB is still not over. They are forced to pay early to LHDN and only adjust later. If there is overpayment, the refund is late.
“We feel with the constraint in cost which is increasing and the implementation of GST (Goods and Sales Tax) soon, the government should consider tax release up to a salary of RM8,000 in the 2015 Budget,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
Yesterday, LHDN issued a statement on the CP38 directive to employers aimed at settling existing taxes.
In the statement, LHDN said the directive would be applicable to 156,158 individual tax payers involving outstanding tax amounting to RM418 million.
Commenting further, Azih said it was more appropriate if the action was postponed, scrutinised and reconsidered whether it was really suitable for implementation.
“The government asks for hike in productivity and performance but at the same time puts pressure on them, whilst the civil servants are forced to think about the high costs of houses, children’s education, rising cost of living and others,” he added. — BERNAMA
Source: Bernama
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