The issue of foreigners working in Bangladesh repatriating a huge amount of money to their home countries has come to limelight again. According to a recent study of the US-based Pew Research Center, over $2.0 billion (Tk 165 billion) is going out of the country every year through formal channel.
But the unofficial figure of money outflow is, nevertheless, staggering. For example, Indian nationals working here alone take home Tk 320 billion annually. Around 85,000 foreigners legally work in Bangladesh, mostly in the export-oriented readymade garment (RMG) sector. But a rough reckoning says a considerable number of foreigners, nearly 0.2 million, is working here with or without valid work permits.
Taxmen say foreigners are mostly employed in RMG, hotels and restaurants, massage and beauty parlours, power plants and the services sectors. Indians, Sri Lankans, Chinese, Pakistanis, Koreans and Filipinos make up the majority of foreigners.
Quite a large number of foreigners have been working in various establishments here for long. They are allegedly siphoning off huge foreign exchange components from Bangladesh in the absence of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned. No effective measures have been taken so far against them excepting some occasional roundups.
An unidentified number of local entrepreneurs hire foreign nationals as their company high-ups. They are reluctant to hire locals in top positions due to the locals' lack of job-oriented education and skills. Nobody knows why the country's educational institutions are failing to teach them as per the industry demands.
India leads the list of foreigners with 35,386 as per official estimate while China comes next with 13,286. Japan has 4,093 of its citizens while there are 4,093 Koreans and 3,777 Sri Lankans working in Bangladesh. Besides, many others from Thailand, England and Singapore are also working in different sectors.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) had earlier issued an ultimatum to the employing companies and individuals to put their respective foreign employees on payroll after having compiled information of tax-dodging. One NBR taskforce was scheduled to visit some selected companies to detect unlawful acts and take punitive action thereof.
Existing rules say, any company can appoint foreign staff with prior approval from authorised agencies. According to the income tax ordinance, it is a punishable offence to appoint foreigners without such approval.
Many of the foreign workers evade taxes with the help of their employers as they stay on temporary basis by renewing work permit every three months to dodge compliance with the law. Although a large number of foreigners are working in Bangladesh, there is no reflection of their presence in tax files. Only 11,000 foreigners have tax files with the NBR's field offices.
Some private business establishments see the deployment of so-called foreign experts as a means to expand their own businesses. For example, a cent per cent export-oriented garments owner hires expatriates to get more work orders for his own business. For business promotion, he prefers to employ an Indian, a Sri Lankan or an American as the people of those countries mainly head the buying houses.
Finding no jobs in their home country, many information technology (IT) specialists have come to Bangladesh and opened training centres across the country. They are minting money from the local citizens by offering cheap IT courses that are making computer operators, not specialists. Indians are reportedly heading this long list of so-called experts.
What's baffling is, foreigners are having a gradual grip on Bangladesh's most sensitive sectors like IT, telecommunications, textile, energy, RMG etc. Some of them are involved in the financial sector as well. The trend gives a negative signal for this country.
The local jobseekers, no doubt, suffer from lack of adequate technical knowhow. They also lack ability to speak and write English fluently. They need to be well-equipped with technical knowhow. The government and the private sector institutions should offer them quality education so that they could be absorbed in the country's topmost jobs.
