SNPF

All employers in the Kingdom must register with the fund. The registration procedure merely requires the completion of an application form NPF 1 upon receipt of which the Fund will allocate an account number to the employer. This number identifies the employer for all correspondence and accounting purposes. A "Certificate of Registration" – bearing the account number allocated - is sent to every registered employer’s establishment so that members of staff can easily make a note of the account number for their own use. The co-operation of employers in displaying the certificate and providing copies in any branches or sub-divisions of an employer’s undertaking is requested.

The registration of employees necessarily involves the employer in a good deal of work. Contributing members of the fund will, however, be identified by their names and identity numbers as quoted on their Graded Tax documents to avoid asking employers to record yet another set of numbers simply for the purpose of the National Provident Fund. Any worker who does not yet hold a Graded Tax card document, should be encouraged, and assisted where possible, to get their Graded Tax cards in the normal way before the employer starts paying contributions to the fund in respect of the employee.

Casual employees are not required to be members of the fund and employers do not therefore have to keep the same records in respect of them but, in due course a monthly "Special Contribution" will be paid into the fund which will represent 7% of the total wages paid to all casual workers in any month.

Employers are asked to note carefully the definition of a casual employee given in section 2 of the S.N.P.F. Order which, for convenience, is set out below:

"Casual employee" at any time means an employee, other than a domestic servant, engaged on a daily contract of service who at such time has been employed by his employer for a continuous period of less than one month:

Provided that the continuity of the employee’s period of service shall not be deemed to have been broken by reason only that the employee was not employed on Sundays, public holidays or not more than five other days during the period of one month:

It should be noted that seasonal workers, temporary staff, mornings only or part-time staff are not necessarily casual workers: invariably they are eligible for membership of the fund.

Paragraph 20 (1) (b) of the S.N.P.F. (General) Regulations sets out the record-keeping required of employers in respect of casual workers. At the end of each month, employers are asked to total the amounts of wages paid to this category of employee, enter the total in the appropriate place on Form NPF 200 ascertain 7% of the total of these wages rounding down the amount so obtained to the nearest ten cents to determine the Special Contribution payable, and enter this amount in the appropriate space on the form NPF 200.

It should be explained that these Special Contributions are credited to the Reserve Account of the fund to provide the board with resources to finance – with the Minister’s approval – schemes for their welfare of the aged and disabled.

A feature of the National Provident Fund is that, over and above any statutory contributions required by law to be paid in respect of eligible employees, a contributing employer may voluntarily make payments into the fund to secure improved benefits for all, or some categories, of his staff.

Section 18 of the S.N.P.F. Order allows an employer to make what are termed supplementary contributions to the fund to give an employee, any category of employees, or the whole of his labour force improved benefits. These supplementary contributions are credited to a separate account of the worker – known as a savings account – as the Order allows a member to claim the whole, or part, of his credit in this account on leaving an employer’s service as well as in circumstances which make him eligible for a benefit from his statutory contributions account. It will be seen that the benefits arrangements from the supplementary savings scheme are similar to the provisions which exist in all employers’ private schemes, whereas withdrawals from an individual’s statutory contribution account can only take place in a very limited number of circumstances, and certainly not on changing jobs.

For some time, statutory contributions will probably be related to the first E400 per month of earnings only so that, in lieu of establishing his own scheme or perhaps continuing with the administration of a small private pension or provident fund scheme, an employer may wish to use the supplementary contribution facilities of the S.N.P.F. for his senior staff. The fund’s contribution records have been drawn up to make the administrative arrangements for supplementary savings very easy and it is hoped that employers will take advantage of the scheme to give their higher paid staff benefits which are related to total earnings.

The attention of employers is also drawn to the provision of section 19 of the S.N.P.F. Order which allows an employer at any time to pay into the fund a capital sum for the purpose of providing an enhanced benefit for a named worker, a former employee eligible for membership, or a dependant of an employee or former employee. Such a facility enables an employer to provide a retiring worker in meaningful benefit when, for example, he has only a year or two contributing membership of the fund. Similarly, it provides a facility which may help an employer to make some provision for the widow and/or other dependant of a deceased workman.

Finally, this arrangement can be used by employer in lieu of a private long service bonus or gratuity scheme. The monies paid in under this section can be identified as credits for an employee’s statutory contribution account or his savings account.

Employers wishing to have more detailed explanations concerning the operation of the supplementary payment and contribution system mentioned above should contact the Swaziland National Provident Fund on 508 2000 or by email to info@snpf.co.sz