Underutilized construction cess
Under the Building and Other Construction Workers' Welfare Cess Act 1996, realty developers are required to pay cess of one 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. 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. In a written reply to the RajyaSabha, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said, “The responsibility of collecting cess and its utilization for welfare of workers lies with the respective state governments/UT administrations and the workers' welfare boards."
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