KUALA LUMPUR: The government is considering imposing more levies to reduce foreign workers in selected industries, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said.
The move, however, would be done gradually as the current levies are already high, Johari said.
“We’ll continue to raise foreign worker levies in the future. But at the moment, the levies are already high so we’ll only do it on a gradual basis,” he told reporters at the relaunch of Asian Finance Bank Bhd as MBSB Bank Bhd, here today.
Johari urged employers to reduce reliance on foreign workers, saying they need to put more attention into automating their operations so that the country can afford the minimum wage that Bank Negara Malaysia had recommended recently.
“As for industries that rely heavily on foreign workers, we have to continue in our emphasis on increasing automation and mechanisation.”
The overdependance on foreign workers doing manual labour is one of the reasons Malaysia seems to be trapped in a middle income dilemma, he added.
Johari said the government supported Bank Negara Malaysia's suggestion for employers to incorporate a higher remuneration of living wage.
He, however, said the move cannot be implemented immediately.
“We have already embarked on the RM1,200 minimum wage in civil servants’ monthly pay.
“As for the private sector, the minimum monthly wage in Peninsula Malaysia is RM1,000. We're mindful of small medium enterprises (SMEs), which make up 97 of our RM1.3 trillion economy and contribute some 6.8 million jobs.
“We cannot afford to burden the private sector by drastically raise minimum wages. We don't want SMEs to lose money and close shop. We cannot immediately force minimum living wages on SMEs,” he explained.
Last week, Bank Negara in its study titled “The living wage: Beyond making ends meet”, highlighted the wage growth among the bottom 40 per cent of households in Malaysia was just enough to keep pace with the rise in the cost of living but not enough for an acceptable living in Kuala Lumpur.
The central bank estimated the provisional living wage ranged between RM2,700 and RM6,500 per month in the capital.
The living wage for a single adult was RM2,700 per month, RM4,500 per month for a couple without children, and RM6,500 per month for a couple with two children.
Meanwhile, MBSB Bank president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zaini Othman said despite the bank’s renaming, the listed counter remains with its parent Malaysian Building Society Bhd.
Zaini, who is also MBSB managing director, said MBSB Bank is the country’s second largest Islamic bank with some RM45 billion assests.
The bank had no plans to expand into investment banking or stockbroking in the immediate term, he added.