Nearly 50% of construction workers' welfare cess funds unutilised

As on March 31, only Rs 64,193 crore was spent on workers' welfare, while Rs 47,800 crore remained unutilised

Nearly half of the Rs 1.12 trillion collected by states and Union Territories (UTs) as the building and other construction workers’ welfare cess remained unutilised till March 31 this year, a Business Standard analysis has revealed.

   

States and UTs are mandated to have a building and other construction worker welfare board (BOCWWB) under the Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996. Every construction work within a state with a total cost of more than Rs 10 lakh, excluding the cost of land, is levied a cess of 1 per cent, to be used for the welfare of workers.

   

And since 1996, states and UTs have collected Rs 1.12 trillion as cess for the welfare of 56.5 million registered workers.

   

But, by the end of financial year 2023-24 (FY24), only Rs 64,193 crore (57 per cent) out of the collected amount was spent on workers’ welfare, while Rs 47,800 crore (43 per cent) remained unutilised, according to the data accessed from the Parliament.

   

Among the 22 major states and UTs, Assam (23.9 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (15.4 per cent), Gujarat (18.2 per cent), Delhi (21.9 per cent), Tamil Nadu (39.9 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (46.5 per cent), Jharkhand (40.2 per cent) and Haryana (47.1 per cent) have spent less than half of the amount collected. 

   

Kerala was the best performer as it has spent the entire amount (Rs 3,457 crore) that it collected, followed by Odisha (84.5 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (84.3 per cent), Telangana (76.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (73.6 per cent), and Chhattisgarh (73.3 per cent).

   

On Tuesday, some news reports claimed that the Union labour ministry was mulling planning to guarantee a minimum pension to the construction workers using Rs 76,000 crore corpus built from the building and other construction workers’ welfare cess.

   

Business Standard couldn’t find out the current status of the corpus left. Till March 31, it was Rs 64,193 crore. 

   

Debanjan Chakraborty, vice-president, Construction Workers’ Federation of India (CWFI), alleged that workers engaged in construction activities across the country are denied basic amenities as the boards constituted for their welfare seldom take any initiative to enrol and register workers, which results in lower disbursement of funds. 

   

The states are mandated to have a BOCWWB and register every adult construction worker until 60 years of age (engaged in construction work for not less than 90 days in preceding 12 months) as a beneficiary.