SRC and SPF to boost working partnership through MoU |30 July 2022

Mrs Abdul Majid (left) and Mrs Herminie signing the MoU (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

The Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) and the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) have pledged to work closely together to ensure that they receive and share the same payrolls of employers and employees so as to address possible leakage of revenues between the two institutions.

They did so through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday.

The main focus of the MoU is to encourage compliance, by employers and employees, to the applicable laws (pension and tax laws) in relation to salaries and related emoluments.

The MoU was signed by the Commissioner General of SRC, Veronique Herminie, and the chief executive of SPF, Nishreen Abdul Majid, in a short ceremony at the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade, Liberty House.

Present were the executive director in the ministry, Cillia Mangroo, and senior officials from both SRC and SPF.

Mrs Herminie stated that through their observation, following a project on Income and Non-Benefit Monetary Tax (INMBT) since last year, there were non-payment of income tax by some employers on behalf of employees and in that case it is important for SRC and SPF to ascertain whether these same employers are at least paying pension contribution for their employees.

Other observations found were non-payment of non-monetary benefits (such as in accommodation and transport etc…) by certain category of businesses, non-lodgment of payroll especially where the salaries are below the threshold of R8555.50 and separate declaration for pension and for tax.

Mrs Herminie added that under the same project from January 2022, SRC has managed to raise an additional revenue of R8.07 million from 9 tax payers.

She noted that in 2021, 65 cases for possible non-compliance to INMBT law were forwarded to the SRC’s Return Processing Unit for audit where from between January to June 2022, there was a payment of R10.04 million shared among 18 of the 65 cases for non-compliance.

“These results and findings show that the two institutions should indeed be working closely together to address possible revenue leakage,” Mrs Hermine said.

She also highlighted on the need to promote and bring awareness to the use of e-service for payroll lodgment , on how the two digital platforms can interface to facilitate ease of doing business as well as for information exchange and also on how best the two institutions can link their common payrolls to address possible revenue leakage.

Mrs Abdul Majid said the MoU further formalises the relationship between SRC and SPF, especially through the sharing and exchange of information where the SPF will be in a better position to verify salaries declared at both institutions to eliminate possible pension fraud that can arise whereby salaries declared at SRC (lower and paying less tax) differ from those declared at SPF (higher).

“The exchange of information will make it more transparent when we will have to attend to our members who will be coming to come to file for their pension benefits,” Mrs Abdul Majid said.

Both Mrs Herminie and Mrs Abdul Majid said they are looking forward to the new working relationship.

Patrick Joubert