PENSION FOR EXPATRIATE WORKERS: MINISTER

Justice and Foreign Employment Minister Talatha Atukorale while dismissing the media reports that a tax has been imposed on foreign remittances by the budget 2018, added that a pension scheme would be introduced to nearly 1.5 million expatriate Sri Lankans from 2018.

She said some websites had given wide publicity to incorrect information that the government was in a move to impose a tax for remittances from foreign Sri Lankan employees from 2018 on a budget proposal and said she did not know how and where they got the information.

Minister Atukorale said a pension scheme for expatriate Sri Lanka employees would be introduced next year with the assistance of foreign countries where Sri Lankans are employed.

The government in 2015, February announced a pension scheme to her overseas workers, if the workers complete two years of foreign employment. The scheme is being mooted by the President, Maithripala Sirisena.

A top official at the Ministry of Foreign Employment said the new government had drawn up a package of proposed facilities and services to Sri Lankan overseas workers, including the pension scheme, in recognition of their contributions to the country’s economy.

The ministry is in the process of drafting the scheme, which will be presented to the Parliament for approval shortly. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Sri Lankans as employees, numbering some 550,000 of the total 1.5 million Sri Lankans currently working in the Middle East.

The Foreign Employment Ministry has taken steps to increase the interest rate on Non-resident Foreign Currency (NRFC) deposits by 2.5% annually, and the foreign workers’ registration fees at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) would be reduced to 147 rupees from the previous amount of 226 rupees.