Gujarat Assembly passes bill to repeal Professional Civil Engineers Act

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat assembly on Monday unanimously passed two bills allowing the government to make necessary changes in the existing law on GST and repeal the Act related to the registration of civil engineers.

The opposition Congress and AAP had consented to passing The Gujarat GST (Amendment) Bill and The Gujarat Professional Civil Engineers Act (Repeal) Bill.

After tabling the GST (Amendment) bill, Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai told the House that various decisions were taken by the GST Council in its 53rd meeting held last year and three central laws on GST were amended by the Parliament through Finance (No.2) Act, 2024.

"To implement those recommendations of the GST Council in the state and to maintain uniformity in the applicability of the Central GST Act and the Gujarat GST Act of 2017, it was necessary to amend the state GST Act," said Desai.

He said an ordinance regarding the amendments was promulgated last year as the House was not in session at that time.

"This Bill will replace the ordinance by an Act of the state legislature," said Desai.

The bill, which seeks to repeal an Act mandating the registration of professional civil workers, was tabled by Minister of State for Cooperation, Jagdish Vishwakarma.

The minister said the state government had introduced the Gujarat Professional Civil Engineers Act in 2006 for the registration of professional civil engineers in view of the devastating earthquake of 2001, which claimed many lives.

"It came to light that the loss of human life could have been avoided if the design and construction of the buildings had been safe. Thus, to protect the general public from unqualified persons working as construction engineers, this Act was brought" said Vishwakarma.

The Act, however, has now become redundant after the introduction of the Comprehensive General Development Control Regulation (CGDCR) in 2017 to ensure uniformity across the state in terms of construction criteria and permissions, said the minister.

He added that the new regulation is more comprehensive and covers all the aspects of the Gujarat Professional Civil Engineers Act.

As per CGDCR-2017, a "high-rise buildings committee" is constituted for any building above 45 metres. It also has a mandatory provision to submit structural safety reports after a third-party inspection, said Vishwakarma.

In 2017, the Urban Development and Urban Housing Department implemented the 'Comprehensive General Development Control Regulation (CGDCR 2017) to ensure uniformity in construction criteria and permissions.