Tax-payers will have to dig deeper into their pockets this year to pay for the National Social Security Fund, whose deductions has catapulted by 300 per cent!
According to a report by Business Daily, the fund was engaged in out of courts talk with Trade unions seeking to unlock a stalled 2013 Act that had proposed the increment.
NSSF Board of Trustees chairman Julius Karangi, on Monday, confirmed that the government body had engaged in talks with Central Organisation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) to resolve the matter.
“We have been engaging both FKE and COTU so as to unlock the act within the next two months.
“There were a few issues but whatever concerns were there have been sorted. It is just a matter of sitting down and operationalising the act,” stated Karangi.
He further explained that the move was necessary since without the contributions, the commission may be forced liquidate its assets just to pay retirees.
“If that does not happen, the fund is going to shrink over time, we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we have to liquidate assets to pay retirees,” he continued.
The 2013 stalled act proposed that all workers of a maximum pensionable earnings of up to Kshs 18,000 should remit 12 per cent of their earnings which amounted to Kshs 2160.
The act further explained that the employee would foot six per cent of the contribution while the employer met the rest.
The act further proposed that the minimum pensionable earnings be pegged at Kshs 6,000.
The NSSF dispute with the trade unions had escalated to a full on court battle that saw COTU boss Francis Atwoli and his FKE counterpart Jacqueline Mugo temporarily ousted from the fund’s board.