Important: Botswana Covid-19 Wage Subsidy

Dear X3 HR and Payroll User, 

The Minister of Finance has announced a wage subsidy for certain businesses registered for tax (irrespective whether they ow tax) effective April 2020 until June 2020.

Please see the internal communication received from Compliance below:

Qualifying employers (all conditions must be met):

  • All business sectors are eligible except those listed in section 2 of the guidelines.
  • The employer must be registered with BURS (if not registered, they must register with BURS using the e-service portal). The employer must have a TIN to claim.
  • The employer must make a commitment not to retrench employees as a result of the pandemic.
  • The employers must produce a wage bill from December 2019 until the current period. 

Qualifying employees:

  • Only citizen employees employed at qualifying employers.
  • Temporary employees and employees employed are more than one employer qualifies.

Application procedure:

  • Qualifying employers must complete the Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Claim Form and submit it online using the e-service portal.
  • The successful applicant must submit the claim form each month before the 15th of the month in order to facilitate payment in that month (will be paid by BURS by the 25th of that month). Claims received after the 15th will be paid in the subsequent month. The April deadline has been extended to the 20th of April and payment will be made by BURS by the 28th of April 2020.
  • Any employer who is found to have abused the subsidy shall be liable for prosecution.

Calculation of wage subsidy:

  • The basis of the subsidy is 50% of the employee’s monthly wages with a minimum of P1000 per month and a maximum of P2500 per month for each qualifying employee. Please refer to the guide for a diagrammatic illustration.
  • Currently is it unclear if the wage subsidy is included in employment income and is subject to PAYE – further clarity must be provided.

Please note that there is still some uncertainty regarding what must be reported for some fields and the deadline for submissions is the 15th of each month.

Product Delivery (X3 HR and Payroll) is busy implementing an extract to assist customers to extract the required information as required and will send the patches as soon testing is finalised.

Kind Regards 

X3 HR and Payroll Support