-TheWire.in Why should the money collected through purpose-specific cesses be funneled into a state's consolidated fund? On July 20, 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s report on Kerala’s finances for the fiscal year 2020-21 was tabled in the state assembly. Amongst several other observations, this report has noted how funds being kept outside the ‘Consolidated Fund’ of the state. The context here is the manner in which Kerala treats cess...

-TheWire.in A recent CAG report paints a sobering picture of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board's performance. A recently tabled Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has raised critical questions over the functioning of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. Let’s start with the most startling revelation. According to the national auditor, the welfare board, which comes under the Delhi government’s labour department, spent a meagre Rs...

-The Hindu Rs. 35,399.40 crore spent from ₹78,521.24 crore collected, Minister tells Lok Sabha in written reply Over half the amount collected in the form of a cess on construction projects to fund welfare schemes for workers has not been utilised so far, the Labour and Employment Ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The cess, collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act, 1996, is supposed to be used...

The recently released quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data broadly confirms the dip in employment and jobs during the countrywide lockdown period, followed by a certain degree of recovery in the post-lockdown months last year as have been indicated by various survey-based studies and research papers. The quarterly bulletin on PLFS provides data on key employment and unemployment indicators i.e. Unemployment Rate (UR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Labour...

-The Hindu Aid to be transferred to bank accounts The Centre has ordered State welfare boards for building and other construction workers (BOCW) not to distribute household and other articles to workers and instead stick to transferring monetary assistance into their bank accounts. The Labour and Employment Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it issued an order to States on Monday directing the boards not to distribute articles. The BOCW boards...