Vikramaditya
Port Blair, July 02: Many Panchayats of South Andaman are presently charging 1% cess on building estimate cost from people, who are coming for approval of building plan.
This collection is being made as per the directions of Directorate of RD, PRIs & ULBs.
Now the Pradhan of Chouldari, Mr. Mohan Halder has raised voice against this order and said that this adds to the already existing burden on someone who wants to build a building.
According to a circular by Assistant Director (RD/Panch.) dated 30th July, 2018, 1% cess was to be collected from the applicant who came for building approval.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the Pradhan of Chouldari, Mr. Mohan Halder today said that there are quite a few noteworthy points in this regard which the Administration must consider before imposing such 1 % cell.
According to Mr. Halder the cess of 1% is for the welfare of the construction workers working on the building. However, GST is paid by the house owner on 70% of the building material like tiles, cement, steel, paint, wiring & fittings, sand, dust, stone products also hiring of machineries. This brings the question as to why, after all this charges, labour welfare cess on total estimation cost is levied from the building applicant.
Secondly, in rural or village areas, the villagers avoid approval of building formality because it amounts to Rs. 50000 to 100000 now-a-days and hence such rule is a loss for public and government.
Thirdly, people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are already paying a high price for building raw material like sand, steel etc. Adding 1% cess would add to the implications of building for a common man.
“He said that an implementable suggestion would be to charge 1% cess of labour components. Also, if this 1% cess of labour component is charged while the completion certificate is being issued by the panchayat (which is yet to be implemented), then, it would be easy for the building applicant to summarize the total labour expenditure that occurred during building construction,” he suggested.
He added that States like Kerela and Punjab can be taken as an example where the cess has been exempted which has lightened the burden of building an establishment unlike in Andaman where people are being forced to pay the 1% labour cess.
