Government owes Teveta K3 billion
Some government departments and institutions owe Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Training Authority (Teveta) money in excess of K3 billion in unpaid levies.
This was revealed on Friday during a familiarisation visit by Minister of Labour and Manpower Development Henry Mussa to the Teveta secretariat in Lilongwe.
In his remarks, Tevet acting executive director Wilson Makulumiza-Nkhoma said the situation is negatively affecting Tevet’s execution of its programmes, resulting in inefficiencies in some critical areas.
Makulumiza-Nkhoma then announced that Teveta is courting the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to collect levies on behalf of his organisation.
“This is the trend in most neighbouring countries and collection of levies is not a problem since such entities as MRA are specialised professionals in such matters,” he said.
Reacting to this revelation, Mussa pledged he will personally be visiting government and private institutions that are not remitting levies to Tevet and force them to comply.
Said Mussa: “The tendency of avoiding paying levies is bad for the country’s development and with such mentality we cannot prosper as a nation. Any employer on a tax-bill is obliged to pay a levy of just 1 percent of the wage-bill. But it’s unfortunate that some tend to deliberately ignore this.”
Mussa also took a swipe at Teveta employees for demonstrating a casual attitude towards work, saying this derails government’s plans to establish community colleges countrywide.
