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Companies can now file single compliance return for eight labour laws

Posted Date : 25-Apr-2015 , 08:42:30 am | Posted By CASANSAAR print Print
Industries from now on will file just one labour compliance return for eight key labour laws ranging from the Industrial Disputes Act to Minimum Wages Act, the labour ministry said on Friday after easing the compliance process. The process has been taken online, making it smoother.
Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the government will keep pursuing a labour law reform agenda that will both benefit workers and create a “conducive environment for industrial growth”.
“The service will reduce the transaction cost of business and make it easy and convenient to meet their obligations. Thus it will not only be a leap towards better environment for business but also motivate the informal economy to get formalized,” Dattatreya said.
Until now, industries have had to file one labour compliance return every year under each of these laws in a manual process that has involved numerous inspections, leading to delays in securing government clearances and tying up personnel in paperwork.
The labour ministry expects the new system to help save Rs.850-900 crore for industries every year.
The initiative is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to improve the ease of doing business in India to attract more foreign investments.
Labour secretary Shankar Aggarwal said the new initiative will cover compliance returns for the Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, the Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Bonus Act, Building and Other Construction Workers Act and Industrial Disputes Act.
The Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act, and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Act will be added in the next couple of months. Given that the provident fund and ESIC have payments linked to them, the government has to create a payment gateway before including them in the initiative, said Aggarwal.
The secretary said 1.13 million industrial units had been under the supervision of four autonomous bodies, including the Directorate General of Mines Safety and ESIC. This number has dropped to 939,000 units after an effort to reduce duplication, and all of them have been issued a Labour Identification Number (LIN).
LIN will help the industries to file the online unified return. Companies will also get intimation about the due date for submission of the return and receive an instant acknowledgement of returns and get show-cause notice in case they default—all online.
“For industries it will be immensely beneficial provided the process is seamless across states and centre. If they can integrate social security schemes under this initiative, it will be brilliant,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, senior vice-president of Teamlease Services India Pvt. Ltd, a staffing firm.
Aggarwal also said the ministry had formally notified the new investment norms for the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation under which the retirement fund manager will invest at least 5% of incremental corpus, or a little over Rs.8,000 crore, in exchange-traded funds that mimic the movements of the equity benchmarks they are linked to. (LiveMint(

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