States collect Rs 27K cr construction cess; spend Rs 5.6K cr

States and Union Territories, which have collected Rs 26,962.18 crore as construction cess, had spent only Rs 5,684.8 crore till March end this year, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said today.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the minister further said: "The responsibility of collecting cess and its utilisation for welfare of workers lies with the respective state governments/UT administrations and state Building and other Construction Workers' Welfare boards."
Under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act 1996, realty developers are required to pay cess of 1 per cent of the total cost of construction incurred by the employer. The cess is levied for augmenting the resources of the Building and Other Constructions Workers Welfare Board.

Concerned over poor implementation of the Act, Dattatreya has been asking the states to ensure that States Advisory Committees under the law meet once every three months.
SACs advice states on matters related to administration of legislations that are referred to them.
"It has been noticed that SACs are not meeting regularly on account of which the implementation of the Act has suffered further," the minister had noted.

The Labour Ministry had directed states/UTs to constitute SACs through an order issued on October 23, as they play very important role in the implementation of the Building and Other Construction workers Act 1996 and Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act 1996.

The Supreme Court on various occasions has expressed serious concern and displeasure with regard to the "poor implementation" of the Act.
The Act provides for regulating the employment and conditions of service of building and other construction workers and also provides for their safety, health and welfare measures and other matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.