Bizmen raise PF issues with regional head

Nikhil Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana February 21

Hundreds of businessmen on Thursday held one-to-one discussion with the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner Dheeraj Gupta on various issues concerning employees, employers and the action being taken by the department.

More than 350 employers participated in the interactive seminar held at PAU. Baadish Jindal, former CBT member and Sanjeev Kapoor, finance controller, PAU, also participated in the event.

Businessmen were seen quite eager to raise queries and problems they face while dealing with PF issues.

Some also raised the issue of strict action being taken by the department against erring establishments.

However, they were told by the PF officer that compliance was mandatory and non-compliance surely invited judicial proceedings, irrespective of the establishment.

When the businessmen raised the issue of show-cause notices being issued to the establishments without checking the compliance status, PF Commissioner Gupta said, ‘“We get a list of defaulting establishments every month from our head office. There are three categories in this (depending on the basis of period of default) — Category A, B and C. We have issued show-cause notices to those establishments whose names are repeatedly coming in these category lists continuously for the past six months.”

“We were constrained to issue notices to these establishments when our other methods of persuasion to deposit statutory dues of their employees on time failed. However, I again appeal to all employers to deposit the EPF statutory dues of their employees by 15th of every next month without fail as deduction of EPF contributions from employee salary and not depositing the same into the EPF account is a very serious offence and constitutes Breach of Trust,” Gupta added.

“We are also initiating 7A enquiries against habitual defaulter establishments falling in these categories, who are not even replying to notices issued by the department. Around 1,600-1,700 establishments fall in these three categories every month,” he said.

Gupta also highlighted that there was a huge gap between industrial worker census in Ludhiana and workers covered under the EPF Act, which means many industrial units are not enrolling employees in the PF ambit.

“I request all employees to get their KYC updated with Aadhaar and bank account to take full benefits of e-initiatives of the EPFO,” he added.