Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) cess fund

Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) cess fund

Subject – Governance

Context – No exodus of migrant workers: Labour Ministry

Concept –

• Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess [BOCWW Cess] is a means to provide health and welfare measures for the workers engaged in building and other construction works.
• In the truest sense, there is no cess called Labour Cess.
  • It is the Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess [BOCWW Cess] which is often referred as labour cess by certain section/ individual.
• Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess [BOCWW Cess] is administered under the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act, 1996 read with relevant sections of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.
• The Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess [BOCWW Cess] under the provisions of the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act, 1996 is a levy covered under Entry 97 of List – I, Union List, read with Entry at serial 23 and 24 of List III in Schedule VII.
• The levy of Cess on the cost of construction incurred by the employers on the building and other construction works is a means for ensuring sufficient funds for the Welfare Boards to undertake social security schemes and welfare measures for building and other construction workers.
  • Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess [BOCWW Cess] is levied @ 1% on the cost of construction incurred by an employer as per the provisions of Sections 3(1) and 3(3) of the Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Cess Act, 1996.
• The Welfare Boards constituted under Section 18(1) of the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 are entrusted with the task of ensuring the provision of health and welfare measures to the workers engaged in building and other construction works of the Building and other construction Workers.

Social Security Fund

• It is created in order to implement social security schemes.
• The Code On Social Security, 2020 is part of the Indian labor code that deals employees’ social security and have generous provisions on retirement pension, healthcare insurance and medical benefits, sick pay and leaves, unemployment benefits and paid parental leaves.

To know about Code on Social Security 2020, please refer September 2021 DPN.