Payroll levy will replace stamp system next April

10 Dec 1999 - by Staff reporter

Expect lower subsidy level, writes Anna Cox

FOLLOWING THE implementation of the Skills Development Act on April 1 next year, a new training subsidy system will click into place for the maritime industry.
From that date the Maritime Industry Training Board: Forwarding and Clearing (MITB: F&C) will cease to exist and its constituent sectors will form chambers within the new Transport SETA.
MITB:F&C will, in the meantime, be known as the Forwarding & Clearing Chamber.
MITB:F&C executive director Charles Dey said the R2,00 training levy stamp would be suspended and replaced by the 0,5% payroll levy which companies will be submitting to the Receiver of Revenue (SARS) on a monthly basis.
The National Skills Fund will retain 20% of the new levy, said Dey.
It was important for companies who saw their core business as clearing, forwarding, logistics or supply chain management to designate their levy payments to SARS as follows: Transport Seta: Forwarding & Clearing Chamber.
In terms of its transformation, MITB:F&C will establish policies, procedures and structures which will put industry participants in the strongest possible position to obtain maximum benefit from their future levy contributions - which are expected to yield less income to the F&C Chamber for the first year than its existing levy.
Dey said there would be unavoidable delays between the time the training levy stamps were withdrawn and the time the MITB received its first payment from the SARS - estimated at between two to three months..
Since it has been impossible to forecast the quantum of the new levy which the F&C can expect to receive, and since it has financial commitments to meet during the interim period, the following decisions have of necessity been taken by the board's elected representatives on the MITB:F&C Management Committee :
l There will be a moratorium on the payment of all subsidies for all courses which commence after January 1. This moratorium will be lifted as soon as the above uncertainties have been resolved;
l All 1999 subsidy claims, with the exception of the Forwarding Practice courses, must be received by MITB:F&C by January 31. The Forwarding Practice examinations (only written at the end of January) course subsidy claims must be received by February 28;
l MITB:F&C is currently reviewing the entire subsidy policy which will in turn be recommended to the F&C Chamber. It does not expect to be able to continue subsidising education and training at the same level as has been done in the past.
The future subsidisation of education and training will take place once the parameters under which we will be operating become clearer, that is, some months after April 1, and in terms of the criteria laid down in the Skills Development Act, details of which we will shortly be releasing. An important aspect for the industry to note is that next year will see many changes in the structures around education and training, but that these changes should not be allowed to inhibit the momentum which has been built up around education and training. If this were to happen it would compromise the very survival of our industry, he said.