Punjab increases minimum wages, printers unhappy
The government of Punjab has increased the minimum wages vide notification No 13591 issued on 28 May2019. Now the minimum wages, in accordance with the said letter, for an unskilled person (gate-keeper, peon, chowkidar, sweeper, helper, mazdoor, etc) will be Rs 8,451.95 per month. For semi-skilled persons like assistant machine man, junior operator, book-binder, book-stitcher, attendant etc, the minimum monthly wages will be Rs 9,231.95. For skilled labour, the minimum wages will be Rs 10,128.95 whereas for the highly skilled workers, the minimum wages as per the new circular are fixed at Rs 11,160.95 per month.
06 Jun 2019 | By PrintWeek India
The ruling has received largely negative feedback from the printing industry in the state, especially from the small printing units already suffering under the GST regime.
Kamal Chopra of Offset Printers Association said though the people are not happy, it is a beginning and still, the information yet to reach many of small entrepreneurs.
“There is a great slump in business in this part of the country and printing, being the mediatory industry, has suffering badly. With the GST regime, already more than 15% printing units (tiny and micro) stand closed. Such units are getting their work done from small and bigger houses, but with the increase in the wages, their suffering will increase. I believe by the end of 2019, more units (about 5%) will shut down their activities,” he said.
The wages will come in affect from 1 March 2019.
The government of Punjab also implemented the ‘Punjab State Development Tax Act, 2018’ where all the employees who come under the Income Tax Net or drawing salary more than Rs 2,50,000 per year will come under the ambit of this Act. A sum of Rs 200 would be deducted from their salary and the employer will also be under an obligation to deposit Punjab State Development Tax.
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