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Lesotho Statutory late-payment interest

Lesotho Statutory late-payment interest: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.

Lesotho has no prescribed rate of interest statute: interest on an overdue money debt is claimed as mora interest at common law, at a rate the court determines, with the Roman-Dutch 6% argued as the legal rate.

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Current valuestructured — see the API
In force from—
Official sourceHigh Court of Lesotho, Botha v Lesotho Revenue Authority (CIV/APN/289/2017) [2022] LSHC 73, para [9]: 'where a debt is due and payable, as in the case of assessed tax, the interest thereon is referred to as morae interest ... the correct rate at morae interest, or legal rate is 6%', citing the Court of Appeal in Lesotho Marketing Enterprises (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Commerce and Others and Xing Long Enterprise (Pty) Ltd v Zhingsing (Pty) Ltd, 'which held the lending rates in 2015 were 7% based on the commercial repo rate'; para [8]: 'In terms of Section 6 of the Money Lenders Act, any interest rate in excess of 25% is deemed harsh and unconscionable'
Last verified2026-08-10
Verificationsecondary — Corroborated, but the primary instrument was NOT read (usually the publishing host blocks automated access).
The 6% figure is reported in the High Court's summary of the applicant's argument and its cited Court of Appeal authority, not read from the Court of Appeal judgments themselves or from any statute; the absence of a prescribed-rate statute is established from the way the High Court framed the question and from the absence of any such instrument in Lesotho legal databases, not from a consolidated statute index.
Provenancesource fingerprint

What this value means

REFUSAL — Lesotho has enacted no analogue of the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act that its Roman-Dutch neighbours use, and no minister gazettes a rate. A creditor's entitlement rests on the common law: where a money debt is due and payable and the debtor is in mora, mora interest may be claimed as damages, and the rate is a matter of argument and judicial determination rather than a published figure. The rate advanced in Lesotho litigation as 'the legal rate' is the Roman-Dutch 6%, on Court of Appeal authority; but the Court of Appeal has also worked from prevailing commercial lending rates, applying 7% by reference to the repo rate for 2015, so 6% is not a fixed statutory number a creditor can rely on. What IS fixed by law: (1) a usury threshold — section 6 of the Money Lenders Act deems any rate above 25% harsh and unconscionable; (2) a tax penalty rate — the Income Tax 'specified rate', published by the Commissioner General under section 192 of the Income Tax Act 1993 'based on the normal commercial lending rates in Lesotho', set at 22% per twelve months compounded annually by Legal Notice 65 of 2015 (which revoked Legal Notice 130 of 2004 and its 3% per month). That 22% applies only to additional tax on late or unfiled tax, was upheld as a penalty in Botha, and must not be served as a general late-payment rate. There is no civil/commercial split and no central-bank linkage. Retrieval note: lesotholii.org sits behind a bot check that blocks automated fetchers.

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# History:    curl https://afriref.dev/v1/ls/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/ls/statutory-interest

Other Lesotho series: CBL Rate (Central Bank of Lesotho policy rate) · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Sectoral minimum wages (basic minimum wages by sector and category) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Company income tax rate (standard, non-manufacturing) · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax rates, threshold and credit · Statutory social-insurance contributions

The same figure elsewhere: Mali · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · all 34