According to Section 35 of the CIC Act, “The Council shall establish a register of projects to gather information on the nature, value and distribution of projects and provide the basis for a best practice project assessment scheme provided under the Act”. All construction projects above a value prescribed by the Minister responsible for Public Works upon the recommendation of the Council, shall be recorded in the register of projects, and the Minister on the recommendation of the Council prescribe a fee to be paid to the Council for the registration of a construction project by persons undertaking construction works.
All public projects and private projects above E150 000. 00 are required to register with the Council.
A construction project has a price tag – the construction cost. This is basically the proposed price of the project. This price can be determined in different ways.
Some projects’ values can be considered as lump sum. In other projects, the price of a project can be determined using bills of quantities or a schedule of rates
Contractors who undertake Construction projects as Main Contractors are to ensure that the levy is priced for in all tenders or bill of quantities. Project owner, developers and or financiers should also ensure that the levy is priced for in their respective projects.
A Main Contractor and not Sub-contractor shall before the commencement of the construction works on a project undertaken to ensure that the Project is registered with the Council.
Once a project owner awards the construction tender, both the contractor and the Project owner must ensure that it is registered with the CIC. Contractors executing or commencing construction works are required to notify CIC not less than 14 days after the date of execution of the contract or not less than 14 days before the commencement of the said construction work, whichever date is earlier.
The Owner of the Project pays the levy. The Contractor shall remit to the Council on behalf of the Project Owner a levy as determined in accordance with the schedule in the gazette in respect of each of Project undertaken. The Owner of the Project may pay the levy directly to the Council.
Upon receipt of the levy invoice, the contractor shall be required to remit payment to the CIC within 30 days.
Payment of the levy will be required prior to the commencement of building works. The Levy shall be calculated on the basis of the total percentage payable on the total project cost.
Minimum Project Cost (E) | Maximum Project Cost (E) | Levy Payable (%) |
0 | 2 000 000.00 | 1 |
2 000 001 | 5 000 000.00 | 0.8 |
5 000 001 | 10 000 000.00 | 0.75 |
10 000 001 | 15 000 000.00 | 0.6 |
15 000 001 | No Limit | 0.5 |
Private Projects below Project costs of E1 million shall not attract any levy.
What is key is that the levy should be priced before the Value Added Tax (VAT).