Pbi varsity professors raise concern over management of GPF accounts

PATIALA:Teachers of the Punjabi University, Patiala, have raised questions over the utilisation of the General Provident Fund (GPF), after an assistant professor of the university allegedly faced issues in withdrawing money from his GPF account.

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 17

Teachers of the Punjabi University, Patiala, have raised questions over the utilisation of the General Provident Fund (GPF), after an assistant professor of the university allegedly faced issues in withdrawing money from his GPF account.

The teachers said the university should deposit the GPF amount of the employees in their respective accounts, which they alleged is not being done right now. They also raised the issue of transfer of amounts deducted as per the NPS scheme to GPF accounts of the employees hired after 2004, and later included in the list of employees working and paid under the old pension scheme after the Syndicate’s decision.

The matter came in the limelight when an assistant professor claimed he faced issues in withdrawing a certain amount from his GPF account. He said he was directed by an official in the finance department to not deposit cheque for withdrawing funds from the GPF account stating that there was no money in the bank account.

He added, “The university has also not transferred the funds deposited in our NPS accounts to our GPF accounts. The Syndicate had decided to include the employees hired after 2004 and before 2012 in category of employees paid under the old pension scheme and thus our GPF accounts were created.”

He added that the university has transferred the money of a certain number of employees but of nearly 900 teachers, the same procedure is pending for over 200 teachers now.

Registrar Manjit Singh Nijjar clarified that the university is not utilising the GPF money for any other purpose.

He said, “The GPF amount goes directly to the account of the employees. We collectively deposit the money in the form of fixed deposits (FD) in the bank and the employees can extract it any time. The interest thus generated from the FD is given to the employees without deduction of a single penny.”

He mentioned that the procedure is part of the university calendar according to which, the employees at a certain time in 1990s have earned over 17 per cent annual interest as well.

Regarding the transfer of amounts deducted as part of NPS to GPF accounts, he said the office of the finance officer must have demanded clarifications from the employees on the matter.

As the decision was cleared by the university Syndicate, the process thus adopted has to be implemented as such without changes, he added.