‘Government agencies engaged in civil works should pay 1% cess’

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 11 (EMN): The Nagaland Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (NBOCWWB) on Thursday said government agencies engaged in civil works should pay 1% cess of the total project cost.

“Any government agencies, whether Central or state departments, engaged in any civil works, is under legal obligation to pay 1% cess of the total project cost, which is part of the project cost, every time a part or full payment is released,” Dr. Kekhrie Yhome, chairman of NBOCWWB, said in an interaction with journalists in Kohima.

He called upon various establishments to maintain financial honesty and timely payment of cess in order to not create financial burden on public expenditures.

‘Cess defaulting departments and concerned disbursement officers may attract legal actions, which may affect employment service, fines, or even imprisonment,’ he warned while adding that any disbursement officers found deducting cess amount and not depositing to the Welfare Board would be dealt with accordingly by the rule of law.

Nagaland has ‘little idea’ about tax, cess

Yhome, who was recently appointed as the chairman of the board, said that Nagaland as a state has ‘very little idea’ about tax and cess.

He further observed that there is a “huge trust deficit” between government and the public because of poor understanding of financial management, financial rules and policies.

‘Financial administration is something we need to be more systematic about because corruption is due to lack of financial administrative understanding, which is creating financial liabilities in the process,’ he added.

Giving information about the board, he said it is a welfare-oriented board with enforcement powers. The board endeavours to consider the welfare or improve the skills of any building or construction workers, Yhome informed.

Local construction workers, particularly those who work in the villages, are negatively discriminated against with preference for migrant workers. In this regard, the NBOCWWB will tighten the loose ends of workers’ welfare, both in terms of schemes and programmes, and create direct access for beneficiaries, through open access digitisation and development of user-friendly apps, he informed.

He added that the board aspires to improve the conditions of all the building and construction workers through training and skill developments, formulate comprehensive studies on the challenge of wage-labour-migration intersections and the financial systems of money circulation and local economies.

NBOCWWB was established by an Act of Parliament and is a statutory body.