Manpower ministry vows to drop various levies

Manpower ministry vows to drop various levies

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower plans to phase out various levies it has been imposing on companies in the hope of allowing them to pay their workers more as well as making them more competitive.

Yudo Swasono, the head of the ministry's Planning and Development Agency, told reporters in his office yesterday that the ministry currently charges no less than 37 different levies in connection with workers' safety and health.

These various levies are responsible for preventing numerous companies from paying their employees better wages, he said as reported by Antara.

The ministry's own survey of companies in the country found that between 5 and 30 percent of their production costs go towards paying various official levies and bribes.

The ministry is now studying ways to phase out some of these levies and keep them down to a minimum, Yudo said, adding "We hope other government agencies will follow suit."

He said many companies have complained in recent years about their difficulties in keeping up with hikes in the officially-set minimum wage chiefly because of the various levies, both official and illegal.

He also pointed out that the minimum wage levels which were set by the government have barely kept up with inflation. "With the exception of 1988, workers' wages have not increased significantly in the past few years," he said.

This, he added, is not good for either workers, companies and the government, because workers' productivity will stay low as long as their minimum basic requirements are not met.

Yudo also stressed that the government has every intention to raise workers' productivity to make the country competitive in the region as well as in world markets. (emb)