The government is developing plans to utilise the National Labour Welfare Fund for the benefit of workers. The fund has around Rs four million collected from workers in the formal sector since 2000.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has appointed director general of the Depart ment of Labour Kebal Prasad Bhandari to develop a plan to utilise the fund. “We are working on it,” he said, adding that the department will submit the report to the ministry soon.

The fund has collected the money under Clause 13 of the Bonus Act 1974. The National Labour Welfare Fund has sufficient funds to carry out welfare activities for workers but not a single penny has been used till

date. However, the management committee of the fund has started thinking of developing a plan to utilise the money.

A tripartite — trade union, employer and government — committee has been formed to operate the fund and it is currently exploring possible projects, said director at the Department of Labour Barun Kumar Jha. Only profit making in

stitutions have contributed to the fund. Major contributions have come from banks and financial institutions, he said.

According to Jha, the government has given the duty to develop projects for the fund to the director general of the department because he also looks after the Social Security Fund — developed from one per cent tax of formal sector workers.

The money is deposited in around 20 commercial banks at a higher interest bid.

However, each bank has less than Rs 250 million for security reasons.

The Social Security Fund also has around Rs 3.5 billion and it has been planning to start basic social security programmes for workers in a participatory model. Trade unions and employers also want the

fund to be utilised but due to lack of any governing law the fund has remained idle.

The Social Security Fund has been facing difficulties in identifying the contributors and starting programmes.

There are many identification cards that the government has issued and we don’t have any legal guidance on which card to use for the purpose, said Bhandari.

Published on: 7 April 2013 | The Himalayan Times