Punjab Govt Relaxes Rules for Shopkeepers: No Account Keeping Required with Up to 20 Helpers
Chandigarh (The Uttam Hindu): Many major decisions were given the green signal in the cabinet meeting held today under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The government has amended the Punjab Shop and Commercial Act to free the shopkeepers from Inspector Raj.
According to this Act, now shopkeepers will not have to give any account for keeping up to 20 helpers. Information will be given only once in six months. Whereas for keeping more than 20 employees, account of all will have to be maintained and registration will have to be done. About 5 percent people will be included in this category. At the same time, the salary of the employees will also have to be increased. A proposal will be brought in the assembly in the coming days in this regard. Apart from this, opinion will be taken from all the experts on this issue. However, he told that labor laws will continue as before. Giving information in the meeting, CM Mann said that the overtime limit was 50 hours in three months. Now it has been increased to 144 hours.
If a person works for more than nine hours a day and 48 hours a week, he will get overtime at double the rate. Even if he has worked for just one hour, this will increase his income. The total time will be up to 12 hours. However, the minister said that his break will also be included in the nine hours. At the same time, any shopkeeper commits violation, which includes many things, such as overtime. Earlier, one had to go to court to pay the challan for violation. Now the provision of court has been abolished.
Now at the ALC (Assistant Labor Commissioner) level, we will notify how much fee is there for which violation, and the person will be able to make his payment on the spot. For this, we are also making arrangements for a portal. Shopkeepers will get approval in the portal within 24 hours for registration. If approval is not received, it will be considered that they have got the approval. There will also be a chance to correct the mistake. The inspector can do checking once in three months.