Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003 |
|
|
|
|
|
Home Page
-
Labour Reforms Industry & Economy - Labour Reforms Unorganised sector workers' fund scheme being finetuned Ambarish Mukherjee
New Delhi , Nov. 10 THE Union Labour Ministry officials are in touch with the Finance Ministry to finetune the details of funding the proposed Unorganised Sector Workers' Welfare Fund to place it before the Cabinet next week. Last week, the Cabinet had sent back the Unorganised Sector Workers' Bill 2003 to the Labour Ministry asking them to fine-tune the funding mechanism with specific reference to how much and where from the funds will be collected. It may be mentioned that the Bill had the approval of the Group of Ministers headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani. The cause of concern within the Government, according to sources, is the Labour Ministry's proposal to impose a surcharge on sale of petrol and diesel as well as the idea of introducing item specific cess for sector-specific workers. According to official sources, the proposed 10 paise cess on each litre of petrol and diesel, if accepted, may be scaled down in consultation with the Finance Ministry to as low as 2 paise. Also, sources said, efforts are on to formulate a system of incentives for employers in the unorganised sector to encourage their workers to take advantage of the security cover offered through this Bill. They added that discussions are on to figure out an effective way of implementation since despite the multitude of schemes over the years, the Government had been able to extend social security cover to only around one crore workers and now the target is 37 crore workers. The sources also indicated certain probable ways such as extending the cover in a phased manner by prioritising certain specific industries in a time-bound manner. Originally, the Labour Ministry has proposed that each worker and five members of his family will get medical cover up to Rs 30,000 a year through a Universal Health Insurance Scheme. It will also give him a life insurance cover for Rs 1 lakh and an old age pension of Rs 500 per month on attaining the age of 60 years.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|