Commencement of the Order 2020, Compliance obligation with respect to NITA & ease of doing business.

Commencement of the Order 2020

The above Industrial Training (Training Levy) (Amendment) order, contained in the Legal Notice No. 10 of 21st February 2010, came into effect on the 23rd December 2019. This has only been recently been published, contributions from March 2020 would now be paid at the end of the calendar year.

Compliance obligation with respect to NITA

The NITA annual single payment and return filing makes it easier for employers to comply. This also reduces the manhours spent on the current monthly repetitive payments and return filing. However, this order does not waive 5% penalty for levy due in the event of noncompliance.

Ease of doing business

Government in its ease of doing business transformation agenda, aims to reduce the number of man hours employers take to make statutory payments and file the various returns. Currently employers make approximately forty-eight payments and a similar number of return filing for the four statutory obligations (PAYE, NSSF, NHIF and NITA).

In the recent past government has embarked and embraced a strong ease of doing business reform agenda. Government is in an advanced stage of harmonising all statutory obligations into one monthly payment and return filing.

The single NITA annual payment and return will be a welcome move and will go a long way to addressing noncompliance challenges. In its drive to improve on the ease of doing business index ranking, government has continued to focus on the regulatory environment to make it conducive, one that is simpler and more friendly for businesses to operate.