Haryana govt depts fined for not depositing PF dues

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 30

It may sound incredible, but it’s true: Not just the private employers, but even several government departments also default on depositing the provident fund of their employees.

Sources at the Employees Provident Fund Office here reveal that several government departments found defaulting for non-remittance of their employees’ provident fund had been penalised in the recent past.

For instance, a penalty amounting to Rs 3.09 crore has been imposed on the state power corporations, which had failed to remit the provident fund of more than 500 employees.

Apart from these, the Board of School Education, Bhiwani; Hafed, Confed and DFSC offices in some districts, Bhiwani Central Cooperative Bank and some prominent state-run institutions are also on the list of defaulters.

The sources maintain that certain government departments try to hide behind the excuse that the contractual employees had been hired through private contractors, who were responsible for the remittance of their provident fund.

However, being the principal employers, the authorities concerned at the said government departments have been jointly held responsible for the non-remittance of the EPF along with the said contractors and made to ensure the payment of penalty.

“We have concluded penal damages and levied interest against 3,011 establishments, sending out a loud and clear message: That there is no fun in delaying the PF payments or using the PF money for any other purpose,” asserted the Regional PF Commissioner, Dr Kishan Pratap Singh.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Dr Singh pointed out that up to 25% annual penalty, along with 12% interest, could be levied on the defaulters.

The number of EPF members under the Rohtak EPF office, which has jurisdiction over seven districts of western Haryana, including Rohtak, Jhajjar, Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind, Sirsa and Fatehabad, has increased from about 3 lakh to more than 6 lakh during the past four years, he added.

The Rohtak EPF office has the unique distinction of having addressed all claims/grievances within a period of three days, with an average of about 25 claims per clerk per day, the highest in the country.