2.5 lakh foreigners siphon off Tk 26,400cr a year: TIB

At least 2.5 lakh foreigners are working in Bangladesh legally and illegally and they are siphoning off Tk 26,400cr every year, according to a study revealed on Wednesday.

Transparency International, Bangladesh, a non-government corruption watchdog, conducted the study that also revealed most of the foreigners were evading taxes as they were mostly working ‘illegally’ without having proper documents.

‘Every year, the Bangladesh government is losing revenues of Tk 12,000cr,’ said the TIB report.

The foreigners from 44 countries are employed in more than 20 trades in both regular and irregular ways in Bangladesh, the report adds.

Findings of the report titled ‘Employment of Foreigners in Bangladesh: Challenge of Good Governance and Way Forward’ was disclosed at a press conference at TIB’s Dhanmondi office.

TIB said that actual figure of foreigners working in Bangladesh would be much higher as there was no reliable and institutional data. So the amount of illegal sending of remittances and the actual revenue loss would also be much higher.

It observed that such haphazard situations occurred due to the absence of the coordinated and effective policy on recruitment of foreigners in Bangladesh.

‘There is no specific authority to control the foreign workers. And there is serious lack of coordination among various agencies responsible for the management of foreign workers in Bangladesh,’ it added. 

The TIB report also mentioned that real wages of the foreign workers had been concealed in their workplaces to evade the income tax.

Referring to the readymade garments sector, the TIB said that though a foreigner was getting monthly wage of $10,000 to $12,000, some official documents showed that they were getting one third of their actual wages.

Addressing the press conference, TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that like other sectors, corruption has been institutionalised here, which resulted in depriving the government from getting a huge amount of money in revenue.

He said that many foreign nationals show lesser amounts of wages they were actually getting to avoid taxes.

Although there was no specific data, the TIB said that most of the foreign workers were involved in RMG and Textile industries. Besides, they were also employed in different government development projects, power generation centres, international NGOs, and hotel and restaurants.

The study conducted from April 2018 to December 2019, found that at least 2.5 lakh foreign workers from 44 countries were working in Bangladesh regarded globally as one of the leading worker exporting country.

Illegally the foreign workers were working in Bangladesh; the TIB study found that most of the foreign workers work in Bangladesh by violating the visa policy.

‘Many foreigners enter Bangladesh with normal tourist visas or visa on arrival, and then they join works without taking proper permission,’ the study said.

In many cases, the organisations that employ foreign workers do not mention them in documents.

Monjur-e-Khuda of TIB presented the study findings and it made a nine‑point suggestion for the government.

One stop service should be established to provide visa recommendation letters, security certificates, work permits and visa tenure extension approval to the foreign workers.

The minimum wage of the foreign workers should be updated, it said, adding that the irregularities at the Bangladesh missions abroad must be stopped in issuing visas to the foreign workers.

A joint and coordinated taskforce should be launched to investigate the employment of foreign workers in various offices and factories.

Demand of sector‑wise foreign workers must be estimated and the preconditions to recruit the foreign workers must be followed properly.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net