A. Update

Social Security Law No.1 of 2022 (‘the Law’) will replace the existing Law No. 24 of 2002 effective January 3, 2023.

Summarized below are the changes impacting payroll compliances:

1. Employer definition:

Employer is defined as any governmental sector, including all ministries, governmental bodies, public authorities, and institutions, as well as the private sector, who employ one or more Qataris for a salary.

However, the following employers are not required to enroll or register under the Law:

1. Private sector employers who do not regularly employ any Qataris employees
2. Employers hiring Qatari workers under temporary contracts for less than a year
3. Employers who hire consultants who provide services without an employment contract
4. Workers who are paid in exchange for their services.

2. Employee Eligibility:

The following employees are eligible to participate in the Law:

• Employee between the age of 18 to 60 years; and
• Employee working for the employer based on a regular employment relationship of not less than one year

3. Registration by Employer to General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority (GRSIA):

Within 14 days of the Law's effective date, the employer must provide the Company data to GRSIA. Further, new businesses founded after the Law has been made effective, must register with the GRSIA within 14 days of the date on which their operations began.
Within 90 days from the Law’s effective date, the employer must send a list of the participant names to the GRSIA. It’s important to note that if the employer hasn't already registered with GRSIA, he must within 30 days of the Law's effective date.
As the contribution is only applicable to one job, the employer is not required to register the employee with GRSIA or pay the contribution on his or her behalf if the employee is employed by another organisation that is subject to any retirement and insurance legislation.
Additionally, the law does not require an employer to make an employee's contributions to the GRSIA if the Company offers a retirement plan that provides the employee better benefits.

4. Contribution Rate:

Employee contribution shall be 7% and employer contribution shall be 14% of the contribution base.

5. Contribution Base Limit:

Contribution base shall not exceed 100,000 riyals for newly enrolled employees and existing employees can continue with their last drawn salary (Basic Salary + Social Allowance + Housing Allowance (should not exceed 6,000 riyals)).
Further, in the event of employee’s attaining the retirement age of 60 years or more, or in case of employee’s death and disability, the employer is obligated to pay the contribution on the housing allowance for a period of 15 years upon the expiry of the employment contract.

6. Inclusion of subscription periods:

The addition of previous service period fully or partially may be requested by an insured person in his current service period provided he meets the below conditions:

• The previous service period requested for addition should have undertaken after the age of 18 years
• Pension or retirement salary shouldn’t have been accumulated for the aforesaid period under any other law
• The maximum length of prior services which can be included shall be 5 years unless specified
• Any contribution due for the previous period, shall be paid at the rate of 21% on the salary in the contribution account as on the date of the addition request, or the pension calculation salary, whichever is higher.

7. Purchasing additional service terms:

Those whose services have ended may request for additional service period which will be included to their actual service period for pension eligibility, in accordance with the following conditions:

• At the time of application, their age should not be less than 50 years
• Their actual service period shall not be less than 20 years
• The buying-in period shall be limited to the pension entitlement period
• The total contribution fees due for the purchased period shall be paid at 21% based on the last contribution account salary at the date of the purchase order or the pension account salary, whichever is higher
• Submit the request for purchase within one year from the date of notification to his national address or any other means of notification about end of his services

8. Payment due date to GRSIA:

5 th of the following month. In case of non-compliance, a fine of 2% will be imposed on the outstanding amount due to GRSIA from the date they are due until the date of settlement.

9. Employer’s Obligation to submit the list of employees and their Contributions to GRSIA:

TEach year in the month of January the employers are required to submit the relevant details of his employees and their monthly contributions and inform GRSIA of any changes. If the employer fails to register himself or fails to pay the contributions to all or some of its employees or does not pay the contributions based on the actual salary, the employer is liable to pay an additional amount of 10% on the actual dues.

10. Penalties:

A person who engages in any of the following acts shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months and a fine not exceeding 30,000 riyals or either penalty, shall be imposed.

• have not subscribed with GRSIA for any of his workers subject to the provisions of this Law
• have not participated in the consideration of their insured workers for their remuneration and their real service periods
• Carrying away the value or part thereof of their insured workers' contribution in contravention of the provisions of this Act
• anyone who provides incorrect data or refrains from providing data requested by the authority shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding three months and a fine not exceeding 50,000 Riyals or either penalty.

11. Suspension of contributions:

Periods of absence from work and dismissal shall not be included in the computation of the period of contribution for which the employee shall lose his full salary or be paid for it and shall not be counted in the periods required for his right to pension.

12. Pension Settlement:

A pension shall be deserved if the insured person's service ends for one of the following reasons:

• Death.
• Disability as decided by the Medical Committee.
• Reaching retirement age in accordance with the age established in the employment regulations to which the insured is subject, at least 60 years of age.
• Resignation
• Dismissal by disciplinary decision or by final judgment against employment in a crime of moral turpitude or breach of trust.
• Separation from service for reasons other than those provided for in preceding paragraphs

13. Minimum Payable Pension:

A pension shall not be less than QR 15,000 for a pensioner from the public sector. The same provision may be applied to a pensioner from the private sector, with the consent of the Cabinet, and the provisions for application of this rule shall be determined by the regulation.

B. Statutory Compliance Release Date: April 2022

C. Effective Date: January 3, 2023