By Regina Lee

PUTRAJAYA - More employers are registering their foreign workers in different sectors to avoid paying higher levy.

Immigration director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman said that employers were registering their workers in sectors which required a lower levy.

"But upon arrival, the workers are made to work in sectors which require a higher levy. That itself is an offence against the Immigration Rules," he said.

For example, an employer could bring in a foreign worker and fraudulently registering him as domestic help which only requires a RM360(S$148.50) levy.

"But once they start working the employer might ask them to wait on tables in a coffeeshop.

"That would already mean that they are working in the service sector which requires a RM1,800 levy," said Rahman at his department here yesterday

Even then, he said that foreign workers were still not allowed to work on the front lines in the tourism industry.

"If they want to work in hotels, they are allowed to work as kitchen staff or cleaners, but not as receptionists," he said.

Employers found guilty of an offence can be fined up to RM5,000 while the workers will be fined RM200 or less.