Nikhil Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 4
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Jalandhar, is all set to pull up aver 4,500 business establishments and industrial units which are yet to activate the Universal Account Number (UAN) of their employees and even failed to update their digital signatures.
The department is scanning the records of business units which are defying the EPFO directions following which show-cause notices will be issued to employers. These show-cause notices will be issued followed by the prosecution proceedings in the court.
This action is being planned after the directions issued by the Central Provident Fund Commissioner, New Delhi, that every claim form must have a UAN. The KYC like bank account, PAN number, passport or Aadhaar number must also be seeded with UAN and the same must be attested by employer with his ‘digital signatures’.
In the absence of above cited instructions, claim form will not be received in the PF office from January 1 onwards. Pertinently, if the employers will not follow these directions, lakhs of employees will not be able to withdraw their EPF from the PF office. They will have to run from the pillar to post to complete the formalities at eleventh hour.
Regional PF Commissioner Dheeraj Gupta said, “The PF office has over 6,000 registered members (business units), of which many have not updated UAN of their employees and digital signature of the company. Now, we have identified over 4,500 such business units in the region which have been violating the directions of the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Time bound show-cause notices are ready and failing to follow the notices, prosecution will be filed in the case. A separate team of PF officials have been assigned the task,” said Gupta.
He said over 200 firms have already been served show-cause notices.
Regional EPFO caters to the four districts, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr. Recently, it had also filed prosecution in the court against many firms which have been contravening the provision of the EPF &MP Act.
