Myanmar’s passport offices are due to demand that expats and sailors submit junta tax certificates when renewing their passports as the regime looks to boost foreign currency reserves.
Messages on passport office noticeboards say work and seaman passports require a tax clearance certificate, gained by paying tax at Myanmar’s embassies for renewal applications. Nothing has yet appeared on regime websites.
In September junta boss Min Aung Hlaing said migrants must pay at least 10 percent income tax on their foreign wages this fiscal year, which finishes on March 31.
Previous regimes also taxed migrants, which was repealed under President Thein Sein’s transitional government.
Under the new taxation law, expats earning more than US$14,200 a year under the regime’s exchange rate will be required to pay 25 percent tax.
The move sparked a backlash in Thailand which hosts up to 5 million migrant workers from Myanmar.
A migrant in Thailand said: “We only earn a small salary and have to pay rent, utilities and for food. We will have nothing left if we have to pay income tax.”
The regime also demanded that expats remit at least 25 percent of their income through Myanmar’s junta-controlled banks from September 1.
Remittances will be converted at the official 2,100 kyats per US dollar rate while the market rate is about 3,300 kyats.
The junta’s Thai baht rate is 56 kyats compared to 100 on the street.
Migrants face a three-year ban on working abroad after their permit expires if they fail to comply, the announcement warned.
