The Centre on Wednesday decided to bring in an ordinance to amend the Payment of Wages Act to allow business and industrial establishments to pay salaries through cheques or electronically.
Employers will also have the option to pay wages in cash, a source said.
The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill 2016
The Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeks to amend Section 6 of the principal Act to enable employers to pay wages to employees through cheques or by crediting it to their bank accounts electronically.
The Bill was introduced by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya amid din over the demonetisation issue.
It will also allow state governments to specify industrial or other establishments that adopt cashless way for salary payments.
The new procedure will serve the objective of a “digital and less-cash economy”, the Bill stated.
Currently, the Act covers all those employees in certain categories of establishments whose wages do not exceed Rs 18,000 per month.
The Centre can make rules regarding payment of wages in relation to railways, air transport services, mines, oil fields and its establishments while states take a call on all other cases.
By making state-level amendments to the Act, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala and Haryana have already made provisions for payment of wages through cheque and electronic transfer.
Currently, with the written authorisation of an employee, wages can be given through cheque or transferred to his or her bank account.
Government Approves Ordinances on Enemy Property Bill
Additionally, an ordinance to amend a nearly 50-year-old law to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after wars is likely to be re-promulgated.
This is the fifth time that the Union Cabinet has approved a proposal to this effect. The ordinance will now be sent to the President for his assent.
Sources said, after the Cabinet meeting, that the ordinance needs to be re-promulgated as a bill to amend the law that could not be passed in Parliament due to repeated adjournments over the demonetisation issue.
The bill was referred to the select committee of the Rajya Sabha as the Congress had pressed for it. We agreed and incorporated recommendations of the committee, still the bill was not allowed to pass.A Senior Government Functionary
"Enemy property" refers to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm.
The government has vested these properties in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, an office instituted under the central government.
After the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the Enemy Property Act was enacted in 1968, which regulates such properties and lists the Custodian's powers.
As per the proposed amendments, once an enemy property is vested in the Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due to reasons such as death, etc.
The amendments are aimed at plugging the loopholes in the Act to ensure that the enemy properties that have been vested in the Custodian remain so and do not revert to the enemy subject or enemy firm.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)