The Labour Department officials are clueless over the poor response from Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) regarding remittance of the labour cess collected by the latter.
The Corporation “has not been responding” to the reminders from the Labour Department on non-collection of the labour cess to the tune of Rs.1.88 crore as well. The VMC has not responded to a recent letter dated November 20 also, say Labour Department officials.
The Corporation has been implementing the Government orders (GO 112, dated 15.12.1999) and collecting the labour cess at the time of approving buildings.
The VMC, however, did not remit the same to the Labour Department.
As per clause 3 (iii) of the G.O., it is mandatory on the part of the corporation to maintain a register. The VMC is also supposed to send a monthly statement before 10th of every month.
The cess was being collected, but the VMC was not implementing the other clauses of the GO, the labour officials say, and add that in the recent letter the VMC was asked to furnish information on list of plans approved and 1 percent labour cess collected on estimated cost of construction with effect from June 2007.
The VMC has also not collected labour cess on the estimated cost of buildings while approving building plans as per the provisions.
“The VMC has evaded labour cess to the tune of Rs.1.16 crore,” said Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) Department in its report dated March 11, 2010.
‘No details’
Since then, the Labour Department was leaving no stone unturned to recover the cess. The VMC has executed works costing Rs.562 crore till June 17, 2011. The corporation is supposed to pay a cess of Rs.5.61 crore. However, it has paid only Rs.3.86 lakh. In addition, the cess on JNNURM works would be more than Rs.15 crore if 1 per cent cess were to be collected on the total cost of the work.
The corporation has paid only Rs.1 crore. It, however, did not divulge details of the works, the department sources say.
