The Labour Standing Committee of Parliament, headed by senior Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab, has pulled up the Union Labour Ministry for underutilisation of the allocations meant for the Ministry’s schemes. The panel asked the Ministry to assess and work out the likely financial implication for implementing the Supreme Court judgment on higher provident fund pension and approach the Ministry of Finance for additional funds to enable timely payment of amounts that may become due.
The panel, in its report on the demands for grants tabled in both the Houses of Parliament on Monday, noted that ₹ 16,893.68 crore was allocated as budget estimates 2022-23, which was decreased to ₹ 16,117.65 crore at revised estimates stage whereas the actual expenditure incurred as on February 21, 2023 was ₹ 13,092.99 crore, which amounts to 81.23% of the revised estimates (RE) amount.
“The scheme wise analysis of utilisation of funds for the fiscal 2022-23 up to February 13, 2023 reveals that the Employee’s Pension Scheme (EPS) and National Career Services (NCS) are the only schemes which recorded expenditure up to 90% vis-à-vis RE provisioning whereas for most other schemes, the percentage utilisation has been substantially low,” the panel said.
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The report added that the Ministry had informed the panel that the implications of the judgment of Supreme Court on Employees’ Pension Scheme have not been factored into while formulating the budget estimates of 2023-24 allocation of the Ministry as it was prepared before the verdict. “The committee impress upon the Ministry to assess and work out the likely financial implication on implementing the judgment and approach the Ministry of Finance for additional funds, as may be needed so as to enable timely payment of amounts that may become due,” the report said.
As gig and platform workers do not come under the purview of the Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, the panel noted that the Centre for Labour Studies, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, has been engaged for assistance in the framing of a new scheme for gig and platform workers as well as workers in the unorganised sector and a Memorandum of Understanding has also been signed by Employees Provident Fund Organisation with the NLSIU on January 23, 2023.
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“The committee have been apprised that most of the work in this connection has been completed. In view of the imperatives and urgencies involved, the committee exhort the Ministry to expedite the process so that a scheme exclusively for gig and platform workers is made operational and put in place as recommended by the committee and as envisaged in the Code on Social Security, 2020,” the panel said in its report.
It added that issues that may be delaying the implementation of the Labour Codes need to be taken up and addressed with urgency. “The committee would like to be apprised of the efforts made and the developments in this regard,” the report said.
