Bhubaneswar, April 29: If the house you are building costs more than Rs 10 lakh, be prepared to pay one per cent of the project cost as labour cess.

The April 26 notification of the housing and urban development department states that according to the provision of the Regulation of Employment and Condition of Service Rules of 2002, construction workers' welfare cess at one per cent of the project cost would be applicable to all buildings that costs more than Rs 10 lakh.

So far, the cess was limited to commercial and industrial projects, but individual houses were kept out of its purview. But the new regulation will affect everyone.

President of the Association for Odisha Real-estate Developer (Aford) Umesh Patnaik said: "In a city like Bhubaneswar, if you built a house on a minimum of 800sqft, the cost will go past Rs 10 lakh. According to the new regulation, no one will be exempt from paying the one per cent cess to the government."

According to the new rules, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) will deduct the one per cent cess from the individual during approval of the building plan. The revenue generated through the cess would then be transferred to labour and ESI department.

An official of the housing and urban development department said that the state government's decision to bring individual houses within the purview of the labour cess would increase its revenue for undertaking various welfare activities for construction workers.

Rasulgarh resident Sanjay Baliarsing said workers engaged in construction were already being paid handsomely and there was no need to put an additional burden on individuals building houses.

He said: "Even if I want to build a small house in this city with my life's savings, it will cost me no less than Rs 10 lakh. The government should not put extra burden on us. The levy should be withdrawn and applied only to big residential and other commercial projects."

The government's decision has not gone down well with the residents.

"Living in Bhubaneswar is going to become increasingly difficult for everyone if the government continues to find new ways of collecting taxes from us. The city administration is already going to implement a garbage collection fees, then they will impose fees for using plastic and now comes this labour cess," he said.

Though the government is keen to garner more revenue for the benefit of construction workers, the ground reality tells a different story. In reality, the state government has failed to make construction workers aware of various schemes available for them. "I don't know about any welfare scheme of the state government. I work, earn and lead my life without any help from anyone," said Jayanta Maharana, who works as a construction labourer.

The existing labour welfare schemes of the state government have been extended to only nine of the 30 districts of Odisha. These schemes will benefit workers in Ganjam, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Puri and Angul.

However, like several other schemes this has not succeeded in a big way because most construction workers are unaware of the initiative and the need to register with the government.