A little over a week from today, the Botswana Unified Revenue Service will start collecting the national training levy.
In preparation for the levy’s introduction on October 1, joint teams of BURS and the Botswana Training Authority (BOTA) are holding seminars across the country to educate employers, tax consultants, accountants and the business community about the new tax.
In all, these seminars, which end in mid-October, will be conducted in 16 places.
The training levy shall be at the rate of 0.2 percent of turnover at the P250 000 mark and not more than P2 billion and 0.05 percent in the case of turnover in excess of P2 billion.
Employers with a turnover of less than P250 000 shall be exempted from payment of this levy. Alongside the Vocational Training (Levy) Order is another statutory instrument – the Vocational Training (Reimbursement) Regulations. Employers who have incurred training costs shall be entitled to reimbursement from the Vocational Training Fund. This Fund will be sustained through money appropriated by parliament, levy imposed by the Vocational Training (Levy) Order and money received from any other sources.
Every pula, up to a maximum of P1000 per annum paid into the Fund as levy, shall generate reimbursement of P5; every pula above P1000 but below P5000 per annum shall generate an additional reimbursement of P2.50; and, every pula in excess of P5000 per annum shall generate an additional reimbursement of P1.25.
Entitlement to reimbursement shall be in the case of employers who have provided training to citizens of Botswana either inside or outside the country.
An employer may claim reimbursement for training to non-citizens in cases where BOTA is satisfied that the training is necessary for security reasons and will not delay localisation plans of the claimant.
Eligibility for reimbursement also applies to training that falls within Foundation, Intermediate and Certificate levels of the Botswana National Vocational Qualifications Framework; training that includes a minimum of a total of 10 learning hours; training sourced from training institutions accredited under BOTA, the Tertiary Education Council, national quality assurance bodies of the same standing as BOTA operating in other countries; and, quality assurance criteria and processes comparable to those applied by BOTA.
No reimbursement shall be provided for training costs in excess of those approved by BOTA. There shall also be no reimbursement for training provided outside Botswana unless BOTA was notified prior to the training about non-availability of such training locally and authorised such training.
Southern Africa shall be considered for the latter.
