MyEG Services Berhad’s share value had shot up by 19 percent in the two weeks since it was awarded the handling of foreign worker permit renewals by the government, PKR said today.

With its shares closing at RM2.50 per share yesterday compared to RM2.10 per share on Jan 2, the company’s market capitalisation has increased by a whopping RM463 million, the party claimed.

In a joint press conference at the party’s Centre for Reform in Puchong today, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul and Semambu assemblyperson Lee Chean Chung also said that MyEG’s largest shareholder would have made RM137 million for the value of his shares alone.

“Based on the latest announcement, MyEG’s largest shareholder is Raja Munir Shah, a former Penang Umno information chief and Tanjung Umno deputy division chief,” Lee said today, referring his information on MyEG’s latest announcement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Raja Munir holds 31.1 percent of the shares in the company.

Lee ( right in photo ) also admitted that the real scale of profits that MyEG could make out of the much-criticised outsourcing of permit renewals dwarfs the initial estimate put forth by PKR.

“We conservatively estimated they would make RM95 million, but even an individual’s share value had appreciated higher than our conservative estimates,” Lee said.

RM38 more for permit renewals

The new online renewal system means that employers are having to fork out RM38 more for permit renewals compared to the old price that they had paid over immigration counters.

On top of that, employers also have to pay RM20 extra if they want to take up insurance schemes that are not from MyEG for the foreign workers.

“Also one thing that people overlook is the levy that the collect from employers before handing it over to the Immigration. This levy can go up to RM 4.4 billion a year, and we do not know how long they hold the money for - and how they hand it over to the Immigration,” Lee said.

Lee also pointed that Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been named as a party that could cooperate in his complaint to the Competition Commission (MyCC) regarding the MyEG monopoly.

“I urge that Ahmad Zahid give cooperation to MyCC, and don”t try to avoid responsibility,” he said.

Meanwhile, Johari said that PKR would bring this issue up in Parliament in March, and if the government remains mum on the matter, it would mean that there are “hidden hands” preventing Ahmad Zahid from answering on this matter.