Govt owes Tevet K15 billion in levy fees

Government which is the biggest employer in the country, is defaulting on the Technical, Entrepreneurial, Vocational Education and Training (Tevet) levy that every employer is supposed to pay.

According to a latest audit report covering the year ending June 2020, government owed Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education Training Authority (Teveta) K15 billion in unremitted fees.

Teveta spokesperson Lewis Msasa yesterday, while confirming that the government is owing Teveta a substantial amount of money, said they are following up on the levy arrears and negotiations are going on.

He said: “As we deal with all levy payers Tevet Authority has been following up on the levy arrears with government and negotiations are going on smoothly.”

Comptroller of Statutory Corporations Peter Simbani confirmed that negotiations are ongoing between government and Teveta on how the issue should be resolved.

He said: “Government is the biggest employer. It has got over 200 000 employees that are getting salaries from government. If you take one percent of this huge budget as Tevet levy and give it to Teveta every month, then I am sure Teveta is going to be the richest institution.

“So this matter is being discussed between the Treasury, Teveta and the Ministry of Labour on how we can handle it going forward.”

Section 20 (1) and (2) of the Tevet Act creates a Tevet Payroll levy into which every employer must pay one percent of the basic payroll.

The levy forms part of the Tevet Fund that is supposed to finance programmes approved by the Teveta board.

Teveta  is a regulatory body that was established in 1999 by an Act of Parliament with the mandate to regulate, promote and facilitate sustainable provision of quality technical, entrepreneurial and vocational education and training in Malawi.