Diesel and petrol subsidies seem to be hogging the front pages of the major newspapers currently and even topping television news.

But do you know that a big chunk of indirect subsidy is paid out annually by Malaysian taxpayers so employers can have cheap foreign labour? This is how it works.

The large number of foreign workers in the country has resulted in the workload of many government agencies increasing tremendously over the past few years. Examples of department affected are the police, immigration, health, prisons and those involved in the legal process to name a few.

The Malaysian taxpayer - not employers of foreign workers - pays for most of these additional costs incurred by these departments. These 'cheap' foreign workers will become 'expensive' overnight if not for this indirect 'subsidy' to the employers.

In a way, the present policy of hiring foreign workers is excluding locals from the job market, and taxpayers money is being used to achieve this

It is only fair that the entire cost of having a foreign worker in the country be borne by the employer and the worker, not the taxpayer. Levies for these foreign workers should be based on their average annual cost to the various government agencies involved in handling them.

It is indeed an irony to realise that a subsidy courtesy of the Malaysian public is involved whenever we see a foreign maid carrying her employer's marketing, walking the dog or washing the car.