Africa-Press – Angola. More than one hundred billion kwanzas is the amount of certified debt, contracted to the National Social Security Institute (INSS) by more than 50 thousand public and private employers in the country, from January 2008 to February 2023.
The information was provided, this Thursday, to the press, in the city of Soyo, province of Zaire, by the head of the INSS Debt Regularization and Collection department, Lourenço Silva, on the sidelines of the provincial seminar on the Debt Execution Process to Mandatory Social Protection.
The person responsible highlighted that, from the data provided, more than 400 million kwanzas in debt were contracted by more than 500 taxpayers in the province of Zaire, considering the situation to be quite critical, at the level of this region of the country, hence the reason for holding the aforementioned seminar..
Lourenço Silva expressed concern about the high amount of accumulated debt, stressing that this situation creates instability in the Management of the Mandatory Social Protection System, supported by contributions from companies.
“We have to safeguard the rights of workers, because the ultimate purpose of contributions is to guarantee the rights of the working class” he stressed.
The source warned that workers are left without any future possibility of enjoying their retirement pensions, with contributions defaulted by some employers.
The INSS technician emphasized that the country’s private and public sector companies are those that owe the most to his institution, while those in the public administration are those that raise less concern, because they deduct contributions at source.
As a sanctioning measure, it informed that non-compliant employers are subject to coercive debt collection, a process that began in July 2023.
In this context, Lourenço da Silva informed that, since July last year, coercive collection processes were launched against more than 50 non-compliant taxpayers, across the country.
He also highlighted, as a concern, the fact that public administration companies, whose contributions are withheld at source, through withdrawal orders, have never made a declaration to the INSS electronic system.
He said that this failure creates serious problems for some workers who are faced with a lack of contributions when requesting their statements from INSS agencies.
“We have been working with companies in this sector to declare their workers’ contributions to the INSS, which is an obligation provided for by law”, he emphasized.
In turn, the head of Zaire’s Provincial Social Security Services, Luzizila Ernesto Biarco, reported that his institution’s database in the region contains 49,459 insured people, of which 2,963 are pensioners and 1,660 taxpayers.
He considered the number of taxpayers to be negligible, and therefore promised hard work to expand the contribution base, with a view to ensuring robustness in the Mandatory Social Protection System at the level of this part of the country.
He reported that, since July 2023, the INSS in the province has notified 143 companies with a value of 451 million and 173 thousand kwanzas in certified debts, stressing that this amount may reduce or increase depending on the proof that companies expect to present.
The head of the INSS in Zaire reported that another 32 local employers were notified for refusing to collaborate with his institution to pay a debt valued at 111 million, 706 thousand and 845 kwanzas, now subject to coercive collection.
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