Although the 15% Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) has been approved and effective 1st July, the July 2022 COLA may not reflect on payslips until August 2022.
According to information and explanations received from some experts, the match talked about COLA will not be paid at the end of July. It may be paid in August 2022 along with July 2022 COLA arrears. Or it may be paid with a month in arrears leading to the payment for December 2022 being paid in January 2023.
The first 15% COLA may not reflect until August 2022 and whether it is taxable
The reason for this projection is that the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) had processed July salaries for validation at the time the negotiation was made per our sources.
It is hoped that the (CAGD) and the government will come out with an official explanation on this early enough if July COLA will be paid in August etc.
SSNIT is deducted on only basic salary so it is wrong to say. SSNIT doesn’t affect any allowance of a permanent worker. Also, COLA is taxable because there was no special agreement between the government and labour not to tax COLA, unlike the professional development allowance that the tax item was part of the agreement and so is not taxable.
A debate has commenced on whether COLA is taxable or not. We shall find more answers to this and update our readers as and when more technical explanations are made available.
We look forward to the leadership of teacher unions also finding answers to these and giving clarifications as well.