50 Companies Fail To Remit Pension Contributions
More than 50 companies are deducting amounts from their employees’ salaries and wages but failing to pay the money to the relevant retirement funds.
The pension scheme members will inevitably receive reduced or no benefits at all, yet their earnings are being deducted.
This comes as the pension contribution arrears hit ZWL$5.3 billion at the end of March this year.
The Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) on Wednesday named 50 defaulting companies that have been deducting pension contributions from employees but failing to remit to respective pension funds. IPEC said:
IPEC has noted with concern, the continued failure by some sponsoring employers to remit pension contributions to their respective pension funds, to the detriment of pension scheme members, who end up receiving reduced or no benefits, when they become due.
IPEC has been receiving complaints from pension scheme members who have received reduced or no benefits owing to failure by their sponsoring employers to remit pension contributions after deducting the same.
IPEC calls upon trustees of the affected pension funds to put measures in place to ensure the said employers remit outstanding contributions, for the benefit of their pension scheme members.
In addition, labour organisations are urged to engage the employers who are not remitting pension contributions for the purposes of protecting members against old-age poverty.
The 50 defaulting companies named by IPEC include the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), OK Zimbabwe, FBC Holdings, ZESA Holdings and its subsidiaries, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Hwange Colliery Company Limited, Zimplats, RioZim, Harare City Council, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza City Councils, among others.
The law compels all companies to remit contributions into the pension fund within 14 days from the end of the calendar month to which the pension contribution relates.
