By Min Ni Kyaw - Jun 19, 2025
#Letter
We are from Opal International Co., Ltd., located in Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone (2). It’s a garment factory. Our factory has announced that it will deduct a full year’s worth of income tax over just three months. They say that income tax must be paid by anyone who earns 48 lakhs MMK in a year.
They say we will have to pay a full week’s worth of income tax if we work four Sundays of overtime. The more we earn, the more they will deduct.
They mention that the tax burden will be reduced for those who are married and have children. They are also requesting copies of household registration for this purpose.
Our basic daily wage is just 4,800 kyats. The rest of the income is in the form of allowances, which are not fixed or guaranteed. These include attendance bonuses, production bonuses, and other kinds of subsidies—not stable income.
We raise concerns about deductions from attendance or production bonuses, officials from the labour office say they cannot help because those are not mandated by law.
So, we believe that income tax deductions should not include these bonuses and allowances.
Whether something happened to the factory or workers, it is not a big deal to be taxed if calculations are based on an annual income of 48 lakhs MMK.
But workers will be at a disadvantage if calculations are based only on the 4,800-kyat base wage. Wages at our factory are not being increased regularly. But the cost of living keeps rising. For example, we’re paying about 20,000 kyats monthly for military service contributions—shouldn’t this also be factored into cost considerations?
On top of that, our wages are now being paid late. Initially, we received production and performance bonuses on payday. Later, it was delayed to the 10th day of the month and now, they say bonuses will be paid on the 20th.
Let me be clear: we never requested bonuses. Management introduced them on their own. And we don’t think it's not an act of generosity. Because the current basic wage is only 8,500 kyats, overtime is 2,150 kyats per hour, and attendance bonus is 40,000 kyats. No other benefits are provided.
Two people share 50,000 kyats per month for skill pay, and that’s given only for three months.
They claim that these deductions are based on government tax requirements.
If that’s the case, we want to ask—why doesn’t the government help ensure that workers’ incomes are stable and fair?
Workers are already earning so little. We just want to ask do they seriously want to tax from us?
