After Covid-19 spike at Top Glove, Syed Saddiq revives call for windfall tax

 

Following the spike in Covid-19 cases among Top Glove workers, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has reiterated his call for the government to impose a windfall tax on the company.

He accused the glove maker of repeatedly failing to protect its workers’ welfare despite making “supernormal” profits due to the pandemic.

“(Today) 1,067 of its workers tested positive for Covid-19. The Teratai cluster was reported since Nov 9, but their factories were not closed. This is why I have no sympathy for big companies.

“They have reaped huge profits, neglected workers’ welfare, and practice forced labour. As Covid-19 spreads in Malaysia, they reaped supernormal profits with a market capitalisation as high as RM77.59 billion as of Oct 15.

“This is why I asked for them to pay a tax for their supernormal profits, which is a windfall tax,” he said in a statement on Facebook today.

The Teratai cluster, which centred on Top Glove factories in Meru, recorded 1,067 cases today, for a total of 2,524 cases so far. This makes it the largest active Covid-19 cluster in Malaysia, and the second-largest cluster ever after the Sri Petaling Tabligh cluster.

In light of this, the government has ordered the company to close its factories in Meru in stages to facilitate quarantine and testing.

Syed Saddiq highlighted that the US Customs and Border Protection had previously imposed sanctions against Top Glove over labour abuse.

For the record, Human Resource Minister M Saravanan had dismissed the allegations of forced labour as “baseless”, though his ministry acknowledged that it breached the movement control order and provided cramped quarters for its migrant workers.

The company also undertook improvements of its workers’ quarters and paid RM136 million in reimbursements to its workers, in a bid to persuade US regulators to lift sanctions.

In a social compliance audit, however, Top Glove’s rating has been downgraded from A to D.

Meanwhile, Syed Saddiq responded to critics of his call to impose a windfall tax of RM4.8 billion by dismissing concerns that it could cause companies to move their operations to Thailand.

“A windfall tax is one-off. The plantations sector and independent power producers sector had paid windfall taxes, but are still based in Malaysia,” he said.

He also dismissed the argument that the glove makers already pay corporate tax, saying that the tax is for normal conditions but now the companies are earning "supernormal" profits.

Previously, Syed Saddiq was among the MPs on both sides of the political divide who argued in Parliament in favour of a windfall tax.

He told Parliament that the government could have imposed a RM4.8 billion windfall tax on glove makers instead of accepting a RM400 million donation from the companies.

“This could have been used to buy vaccines which cost RM3 billion.

“We don't want to punish these companies, but when they get extraordinary profits because people are suffering from Covid-19, they have a moral and legal obligation to return that money for the people to handle Covid-19 as well,” he had said. - Mkini