TAXES FOR ASSISTIVE DEVICE PRODUCERS SHOULD BE REDUCED

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare and ‘Tegsh niigem kholboo’ (Association for equal society) NGO co-hosted a meeting themed ‘Challenges and solutions for employment of disabled people’ on April 17. The purpose of the meeting was to provide state support to entities employing disabled people and improve the tax environment for them. “According to the statistics of 2017, there are 103,600 disabled people in Mongolia, 80 thousand of whom are working-age citizens. However, only 19 thousand of them are employed. The Labor Law states that entities with 25 or more employees are required to hire a disabled person, but it is not enforced. This is due to the fact that individuals and entities do not know the law provisions. Therefore, it is necessary to organize advocacy work for the public” said President of the Union of the Persons with Disabilities of Mongolia (UADM) NGO Ts.Munkhsaruul. Leader of the ‘Tegsh niigem kholboo’ NGO L.Enhkbuyant emphasized the need of the amendments to the law provisions on disabled people’s employment. He suggested to adjust the provision that requires the entities to hire disabled person to the productivity loss level of disabled people. “For instance, entities with vacancy limit of 25 employees must provide jobs to people with total of 150 percent loss of productivity, choosing whether to hire three persons with 50 percent loss of productivity or 15 people with 10 percent loss. This would be a great opportunity to increase employment” he said. Moreover the participants said that the government should provide tax cuts and support importers and suppliers of wheelchairs, canes and other assistive devices for disabled people. This will allow low-income people with disabilities to purchase the necessary assistive devices at low price. The above mentioned proposals will be delivered to the working groups developing the revised package of taxation laws and Law on Labor, submitted to the Parliament. B.Misheel