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RULES: Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) has until mid-March this year to know whether its proposed annual levy on non-deposit taking Saccos will remain the same. This is because the new Sacco societies (non-deposit taking business) regulations – 2020, which took effect on January 1, 2021 will have to undergo the mandatory public participation process.

More than 180 non-deposit Saccos which have complied with the new requirements are expected to have a say during the public vetting exercise.

The proposed 0.165 per cent annual levy on non-DT Saccos that have now come under its supervision for the first time, is expected to raise debate, with insiders intimating that some of those Saccos are opposed to the new charges.

Industry regulator last year gave Saccos up to June 30 to comply with the new regulations whose intentions are meant to weed out rogue players duping the public.

The move will also see the industry apex body begin to monitor business activities and financial transactions of Saccos in which the total non-withdrawal deposits from members is equal to or exceeds the sum of Sh100 million. Sasra’s chief executive Peter Njuguna (pictured) said the organisation will apply a similar framework used in regulating deposit-taking Saccos. “We are going to use this period until mid-March this year at the earliest on stakeholder engagements with all players including Sacco union, KUSCCO, Co-operative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) and Saccos themselves to agree on some of  the proposed modalities,” he said at the company’s regional stakeholder’s consultative forum on the proposed non-deposit taking business levy order, 2022.

Total revenues A growing number of Saccos were understood to be opposed to the idea of withholding the proposed levy on total revenues from members’ deposits, but Sasra and CAK yesterday clarified that the said new charges will instead be approved from surplus of non-deposit taking business (BOSA) entities. “We will aim to protect our members at all costs. The idea is not to pay the levy through our members’ deposits but through the surplus accrued from the revenues generated, this has to be clear to avert fear,” said CAK Executive director Daniel Marube.