By SOMAN BABY

COMPANIES in Bahrain have been urged to update the data of their expatriate employees with Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) before Monday.

The call came from LMRA acting public relations and e-services manager Waheed Balushi, who said the response from the companies had been very slow, despite repeated appeals.

“We have made several appeals to companies to present photocopies of their employees’ passports and CPR cards at the LMRA,” he told the GDN.

“Though we receive an average 800 to 1,000 employees’ documents daily, we consider it not enough.

“There are some companies which employ hundreds of workers. About half of the companies in Bahrain have not yet cleansed the data of their employees with LMRA.”

All companies in Bahrain will receive bills for monthly levy from July 1 according to the data available with LMRA.

“Though there are three more months before we start billing companies, we have to complete a lot of paperwork before that,” said Mr Balushi.

“We want enough time to test our system and check the information.

“We , therefore, appeal to all companies to co-operate with us.”

According to the latest population figures, the number of expatriates and their families in Bahrain has crossed 500,000.

“The ideal situation is that we have the accurate data of all these people,” said Mr Balushi.

“Even some companies which have registered with us have not presented the documents of their employees.

“It is important for us to have these documents in order to cleanse the data available with us.”

The LMRA office will be open from Saturday through Thursday, from 7.30am to 7.30pm to receive these documents.

Mr Balushi also appealed to all the employers who have not yet renewed work permits of their employees to do so at the earliest.

They should submit the renewal applications to the Labour Ministry and get their stay regularised before June 15.

The LMRA will not renew such permits and the employers, therefore, should get it processed at the Labour Ministry immediately, said Mr Balushi.

Under the new law, the work visa for an expatriate in the private sector will cost BD200 for two years and the employers will also pay a levy of BD10 every month for each expatriate worker to the LMRA.