States spend 1/5th of Rs 25K-cr construction cess on welfare

States have spent Rs 5,371.51 crore for the welfare of workers, out of Rs 25,477.43 crore cess collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996.
The states and union territories in the country spent Rs 5,371.51 crore out of the contribution workers cess of Rs 25,477.43 crore collected till December 31, 2016, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said in written reply to Rajya Sabha.
As per the minister's reply, the maximum cess of Rs 3,579.89 crore was collected by Maharashtra followed by Uttar Pradesh at Rs 2,157.8 crore, Madhya Pradesh at Rs 1,575.62 crore and Haryana at Rs 1,514.59 crore.

Maharashtra, which collected the maximum cess, has spent Rs 213.9 crore while Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have incurred an expenditure of Rs 287.56 crore and Rs 114.44 crore, respectively.
The maximum expenditure from cess was done by Kerala at Rs 1,152.38 crore, followed by Madhya Pradesh at Rs 552.04 crore, West Bengal at Rs 461.65 crore, Odisha at Rs 349.03 crore and Chhattisgarh at Rs 345.44 crore.
Government has enacted the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996 to regulate the employment and conditions of service of building and other construction workers and to provide for their safety, health and welfare measures.

As per Section 18 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (RECS) Act, 1996, the states/UTs have constituted State Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board for welfare of construction workers.

Under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act, 1996, a cess at the rate of 1 per cent of the cost of construction is collected by the states and given to their respective State Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Board for meeting the expenses on welfare of construction workers.
The minister said that the responsibility of collecting cess and its utilisation for welfare of construction workers lies with the respective states and State Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Boards.

The cess fund is to be utilised by the State Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Boards exclusively for the welfare of construction workers in terms of Section-22 of the Building and Other Construction Workers (RECS) Act, 1996.
In a separate reply, the minister said that as many as 35 states and union territories have notified rules under the laws for welfare of construction workers while 33 have formulated welfare schemes.