17 Apr 2020

 Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) acting commissioner - operations, Mr William Nkitseng says out of 7 000 applications received, 5 000 have been approved for wage subsidy support from government.

In an interview on April 17, Mr Nkitseng said 2 000 applications were disqualified for technical hitches such as uploading in a wrong format amongst other things.

“Given the background of the directive by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development on the COVID-19 economic response, we have been tasked with implementing government’s wage subsidy and so far, response by various companies, has been positive,” he said.

Mr Nkitseng noted that the whole application process was conducted online so as to adhere to the precautionary measures though they had noticed that some applicants were experiencing some challenges with applying and submitting online.

“Unfortunately, the facility is only available online to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19. BURS will not accept registration or claim forms in any form except online.”

Mr Nkitseng said for BURS to assist challenged applicants, they had increased the telephone helpline numbers from five to 40.

He said government wage subsidy was to be accessed by employers on behalf of their employees.

The acting commissioner - operations also appealed to the public to follow the guidelines provided on the BURS website so that their claims could be processed and paid out on time. ENDS