Court reserves decision

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, June 11: The AP High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a batch of writ petitions filed by over 300 construction companies, irrigation contractors and firms challenging a government order to deduct the one percent labour cess
The Deputy Financial Advisor to Government had instructed the Director,
Works and Accounts to issue instructions to all Public Accounts Officers to deduct one per cent labour cess from all other contractors’ payments made from June 26, 2007.

Justice N V Ramana heard the arguments of the petitioners and the government.
Earlier the court granted stay on deduction of cess from the petitioners till further orders.
The petitioner's argued that the orders had been given without following Sections 4 and 5 of the Building and other Construction Works Welfare Cess Act, 1996.