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The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) said it is embarking on door-to-door inspections of businesses in three provinces as part of a blitz that seeks to encourage companies to pay pension contributions on time. NSSA is a compulsory pension fund that all employers and employees in the country contribute to. Due to economic challenges as well as outright laxity in some cases, some companies are not remitting contributions while others have been deducting pension contributions from employees’ salaries but not forwarding them to the pension fund within required time frames.
To show it’s seriousness in enforcing compliance, NSSA last week dragged national airline Air Zimbabwe to court demanding about $950 000 in contributions not remitted from last year. NSSA said it would begin the door-to-door inspections in Harare, Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central provinces from November 9 to 20 this year before taking it to other provinces.
“This exercise is meant to verify business compliance with the National Pensions and Other Benefits Scheme and Accidents Prevention and Workers Compensation Insurance Fund (WCIF) for the period January 2015 to October 2015,” NSSA said.
“Although many of our clients are up to date, clients are strongly urged to ensure that their contributions and premium records are up to date. It is a statutory requirement that all contributions and premiums are remitted to the authority by the 10th of each month.”
Failure to remit contributions on time attracted penalties as well as criminal sanctions, NSSA warned. In its financial results for 2014, NSSA said contributions to the National Pension Scheme (NPS) jumped 43 percent to $248 million compared to the previous year while premiums for the workers compensation fund declined 21 percent to $48 million.
An increase in retrenchments and workplace injuries saw claims for NPS and WCIF going up 25 percent from $99,2 million in 2013 to $124,8 million in 2014. “As the economic woes continue to worsen, we have seen a good number of employers downgrading from a rating of ‘voluntary contributors’ to the common pool of ‘need-follow-up-employers,” NSSA said in its financials. – New Ziana.
Online Reporter