Rajya Sabha Introduces New Boilers Bill to Modernize Regulation

The Rajya Sabha introduced a new bill to replace the century-old Boilers Act of 1923. The bill aims to decriminalize certain offenses and promote ease of doing business. It emphasizes worker safety and modernizes regulations to meet current industry needs, especially benefiting MSME sector boiler users.

The Rajya Sabha has introduced a new bill aimed at overhauling the nearly century-old Boilers Act, 1923, with the goal of decriminalizing certain offenses and promoting ease of doing business, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced on Friday.

Approved by the Union Cabinet on August 2, the bill includes provisions to ensure the safety of personnel working with boilers and mandates that repairs be performed by qualified individuals. It harmonizes similar provisions into six chapters for streamlined understanding and enumerates the functions and powers of central and state authorities to eliminate ambiguity.

Focused on boosting the MSME sector, the bill converts fines for non-criminal offenses into penalties, managed through an executive mechanism rather than judicial proceedings. Redundant or outdated provisions have been removed to adapt the legislation to modern requirements.