Levy IS a tax on maids, appeal court hears
A Court of First Instance judge was wrong when he ruled that a $400-a-month levy on employers of foreign domestic helpers was not a tax, the Appeal Court was told yesterday.
John Griffiths SC, acting for five maids who are challenging the ruling, said it was not 'sheer coincidence' that the Chief Executive in Council imposed the levy on helpers' employers and reduced the helpers' minimum wage by the same amount in February 2003.
He was opening his case in the appeal by Julita Raza, Erma Geolamin, Soledad Pillas, Rose Marie Pascual, all from the Philippines, and Eni Lestari Andayani Adi, from Indonesia.
The helpers failed in their application to the lower court for a judicial review of the levy and pay cut.
The plaintiffs believe the levy is an indirect tax on them because of the pay cut.
Mr Griffiths said the judge had taken 'a fallacious approach' in finding that the levy was not a tax because it had not been imposed to raise general revenue for the government and had been imposed on the maids' employers for the benefit of local unskilled workers.
He also disputed the court's contention that there was no compulsion on maids to pay the levy.
'Unless helpers paid the levy, they would not get employed,' he said.
Both measures were timed and announced together, so the lower court should not have ruled that its introduction was not a device to have the helpers pay the levy.
Mr Griffiths said the levy discriminated between foreign domestic helpers and other low-skilled foreign workers whose employers did not pay a levy.
Before the Appeal Court recessed for lunch, Mr Griffiths asked that he be excused for the rest of the day because of discomfort to his injured foot. When the hearing resumed, counsel for the appellants, Philip Ross, asked for an adjournment until Mr Griffiths could fully recover.
Benjamin Yu SC, for the Chief Executive in Council, the Director of Immigration, and the Employees' Retraining Board, opposed an adjournment.
But the Appeal Court, comprising Chief Judge of the High Court Mr Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, Mr Justice Frank Stock and Mr Justice Aarif Barma, granted the adjournment to a date yet to be fixed.
Before the hearing, about 25 members of the Asian Migrants' Co-ordinating Body held a protest outside the High Court.
