New Delhi, March 25 Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal introduced the Boilers Bill, 2024 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday to replace the over century-old Boilers Act, 1923 to improve trust by decriminalising some offences and removing obsolete provisions to enhance ease of doing business.
The proposed bill also incorporates specific provisions to ensure the safety of persons working inside a boiler and that the repair of boilers is undertaken by qualified and competent persons.
The Bill was passed earlier by the Rajya Sabha on December 4, 2024, and will be sent for the assent of the President after it is approved by the Lok Sabha.
The re-enacted legislation meets the current requirements of stakeholders, including industry, personnel working on boilers and implementers in the country, and is as per need in the current times.
The Bill has been drafted in accordance with modern practices to give more clarity to the provisions of the law. Similar provisions, which are at different places in the Boilers Act, 1923, have been grouped together in six chapters for easier reading and understanding of the Act.
All the functions/powers of the Central government, state governments and Central Boilers Board have been enumerated in detail to avoid any confusion, according to an official statement.
For Ease of Doing Business, the Bill will benefit boiler users, including those in the MSME sector, as provisions related to the decriminalisation have been incorporated in the Bill.
Out of the seven offences, to ensure the safety of boilers and personnel dealing with boilers, in four major offences, which may result in loss of life and property, criminal penalties have been retained.
For other offences, provision is being made for the fiscal penalty. Moreover, for all non-criminal offences, ‘fine’ has been converted into ‘penalty’ to be levied through the executive mechanism instead of courts as existed earlier, the statement said.
It added that the Union government is examining all the pre-constitution acts from the point of view of their suitability and relevance in the current times.
The Boilers Act, 1923, was comprehensively amended in the year 2007 by the Indian Boilers (Amendment) Act, 2007, wherein inspection and certification by independent third-party inspecting authorities was introduced. However, on further examination of the existing Act, a need has been felt for review of the Act and also to incorporate the decriminalised provisions in consonance with the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023.
The existing Act has, accordingly, been reviewed wherein redundant /obsolete provisions have been omitted and certain substantive enabling provisions have been made for the rules and regulations which were not earlier provided.
Certain new definitions have also been incorporated, and a few existing definitions have been amended so as to give more clarity to the provisions of the Bill, the statement added.
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