Maternity benefit: Labour Ministry says no 'welfare cess' exists

A day after the Women and Child Development ministry said the government will fund 50 per cent salary of 14 weeks to women on maternity leave from the 'labour welfare cess', the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Friday said no such cess exists under them.

"It is clarified that Ministry of Labour an Employment is in the process of obtaining necessary budgetary grant and approvals of competent authorities. The reports that it will be funded from labour welfare cess is also incorrect, as no such cess exists under this Ministry," it said in a statement.

While the WCD ministry had mentioned that as per the 28th report of the Standing Committee on Labour on "Cess funds and their utilization for workers' welfare", Rs 32,632.95 crore has been collected as cess out of which Rs 7,516.52 crore has been utilized as on March 31, 2017, the Labour Ministry denied existence of any such amount.

However, WCD ministry did not agree with the Labour Ministry.

The Labour Ministry acknowledged that they have received several reports on how the extended maternity leave has become a deterrent for female employees who are asked to quit or are retrenched on flimsy grounds before they go on maternity leave.

"Therefore, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is working on an incentive scheme wherein 7 weeks' wages would be reimbursed to employers who employ women workers with wage ceiling up to Rs 15,000 and provide the maternity benefit of 26 weeks of paid leave, subject to certain conditions," it added.

According to the Labour Ministry, an amount of about Rs 400 crore would be the financial implication for the proposed scheme if approved and implemented.

--IANS

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