Staff Reporter:
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul has refuted the propaganda being carried out on social media over the mobile phone sets of expatriate workers.
“Lying about the interim government or about me is nothing new. Some people on social media are now spreading rumors that expatriates are being treated unfairly and discriminated over their mobile phone sets,” he wrote in a post shared on his verified Facebook account yesterday.
Revealing the real information in this regard, he said falsehood is being spread on social media that the government has made a new rule that if one brings more than one mobile set from abroad, he or she will have to pay tax.
But, he said, the truth is that during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, expatriate workers could bring only one new set along with their used one.
“To increase the facilities for expatriates, the incumbent government has allowed them to bring more (two new) phone sets. That means expatriate workers can bring two new sets with their used one,” he said.
The adviser said if one brings more than two new sets, he or she will have to pay tax only for the extra one.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has made this rule by changing the baggage rule to provide facil-ities to expatriates, he said.
However, Dr Asif Nazrul said this facility is for expatriate workers who have gone abroad with clear-ance from BMET (Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare), while for others, the previous rules remain appli-cable.
He urged expatriates to be careful of rumor spreaders and backbiters, saying that spreading rumors and backbiting are major sins according to Islam.
