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Understanding the Skills Development Levies Act (No. 9 of 1999)

The Skills Development Levies (SDL) Act of 1999 serves to fund the Skills Development Initiative in the country. The primary aim of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 is:

The Skills Development Levies Act provides ways to make training affordable by

As per the Skills Development Act, certain employers must pay 1% of their payroll to SARS. This is the money used to fund skills development activities in a specific sector.

Who should pay levies?

SARS refers to this as the ‘leviable amount’ and provides clear guidelines on what amounts are included or excluded from this definition.

Exemption

The following categories of employers are exempt from paying the levy:

Non-payment of Levies

If an employer fails to pay the levy or any portion thereof at the appropriate time (i.e. not later that seven (7) days after the end of every month), the employer has to pay:

Grants

Originally the Skills Development Levies Act of 1998 distinguished two types of grants to be paid to employers:

During 2012, A third grant, the PIVOTAL (Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic Learning) grant, was introduced by the DHET in an urgent notice in the Government Gazette No 34932 of 2012.

Mandatory Grants

Levy paying employers may claim mandatory grants from their SETA (Sector Education & Training Authority) if they:

Discretionary Grants

PIVOTAL Programmes is an acronym which means Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic learning programmes that result in occupational qualifications or part qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework e.g. Learnerships, Apprenticeships, Recognition of Prior Learning, Skills Programmes and Graduate Development.