Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Sep 16, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Sep 16, 2005 |
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Taxation Industry & Economy - Real Estate & Construction Cess on construction proposed — Proceeds for imparting new skills to workers Sarbajeet K. Sen
New Delhi , Sept. 15 A cess on construction sector projects has been proposed for the benefit of construction workers across the country. The draft National Housing and Habitat Policy, 2005, has proposed that such a cess should be considered for upgrading the skills of construction workers. "A training and education cess would be levied on all construction projects except those being done on a self-help basis. This amount could be spent on training and imparting new skills to the construction workers," the draft policy has said. The draft, however, does not indicate any specifics of the proposed cess. The panel that had prepared the draft has justified the proposal for the cess by pointing out that construction workers need to be trained to keep up with the technological advancement in this sector. It has also proposed that the various schemes in operation for the training and skill enhancement of workers could be clubbed to make the process more focussed. "There are several schemes of Government for imparting training and skill enhancement. These schemes could be easily converged to integrate efforts in this direction," the draft has said. According to statistics put out in the report, the building sector provides employment to 16 per cent of the workforce and is growing at 7 per cent a year. Nearly 55 per cent of the workers in the housing sector are unskilled, the report points out. "Skill upgradation would result in higher income for the workers," the draft has said. The construction sector is the largest employer of women workers who are often exploited through the disparity in wages, it adds. "The solution lies in skill upgradation and induction of women at supervisory levels and also encouraging women as contractors. Public agencies would like to take a lead in this. All training institutions must enrol women on a preferential basis," the draft policy has proposed.
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