CNI News
9 July 2024
The Union Minister for Labor told agencies on 7th July to persuade the workers they have sent abroad to transfer 25 percent of their basic salaries to their families in Myanmar through official channels.
The minister said the above at the 11th anniversary celebration of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association (MOEAA). So, agencies must present to the department whether the workers they have sent abroad have transferred money to their families within three months or not.
Agencies are finding it difficult because the ministry are putting pressure on them and the workers they have sent abroad don't transfer money through legal channels as there is a big gap between the market price and the one the Central Bank has designated, an official from an overseas employment agency, told CNI News.
While seeing migrant workers who have arrived abroad
" When transferring money, there is a big gap between the market price of foreign currency and the one the Central Bank pays. The workers don't transfer money through legal channels. The authorities forcibly ask us to make the workers transfer money. Because they say that agencies have to take responsibility, agencies are in trouble. When the money is transferred to Myanmar from Thailand, the market price of a Thai baht is 120 kyats, but the Central Bank of Myanmar pay only 90 or 98 kyats per baht. So, the workers don't transfer money to Myanmar through legal channels." he said.
Moreover, the Union Minister and the MOEAA met on 6th June and the minister asked the agencies to make the workers transfer money to their families and pay the tax, stated the Ministry of Labor.
Because the contract with the workers before they were sent abroad contained transferring 25 percent of the basic salaries to their families in Myanmar and to pay two percent of the income tax, agencies needed to supervise the workers they sent abroad to make them transfer money and pay the tax, said the minister reportedly.
While seeing those who will go abroad to work
Because the ministry has strictly carried out regarding remittance to families, every worker that made a contract with agencies must transfer money, U Win Myint, managing director of Lucky Overseas Employment Agency, told CNI News.
" The minister said that every worker was responsible to transfer 25 percent of their basic salaries to their families in Myanmar through legal channels. The ministry has made a platform for that. The committee has been formed. The date will come out regarding how much the workers transfer to the bank whether they transfer or not." he said.
As transferring money to the country from Myanmar workers in foreign countries through legal channels could improve the country's GDP, the ministry possibly has tightened this, reviewed some people. The number of workers that were sent abroad is nearly 200,000 in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, stated the Directorate of Labor.
