Extension granted for foreign worker fee payments

Employers who have been regularly paying fees related to foreign workers will receive an extension to complete their payments.

The Ministry of Homeland Security issued an announcement on 1 September asking employers to pay fines and fees of less than MVR 100,000 before 16 September.

Following this, many employers raised concerns about the difficulty of paying all fees and penalties at once through the Expat System. They requested the opportunity to enter into agreements with the government to pay the amounts over a set period.

In a statement released Sunday, the ministry said several employers who had entered into such settlement agreements reported difficulties completing payments within the previously given deadline.

As a result, the ministry has decided to extend the term of the existing payment agreements under the Expat System. Details of these changes will be made available to employers and system users on the Expat System homepage.

However, the ministry stated that employers who have not made any payments under the existing settlement agreements will not be allowed to enter into new ones.

According to the Ministry of Homeland Security, MVR 1.2 billion out of MVR 1.7 billion has been recovered from fees related to foreign workers.