The regional office of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (PFO) has taken coercive action against 337 defaulting employers for not remitting the provident fund amount during 2012-13 in Puducherry, B Chandrasekhar, Regional Provident Commissioner, Puducherry region, told Express.
Speaking on the sidelines of an interactive session with the Commissioner, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Puducherry on Thursday, he said 15 employers who have not remitted the EPF amount to EPFO after deducting the employees contribution from salary, have been booked under IPC 406 and 409 following complaints by the regional office to the police.
Another 17 employers have been booked for being habitual defaulters under Section 110 CrPC by the District Collector (Executive magistrate) and were made to execute a bond for complying with provisions under EPF Act.
The EPFO has also attached the bank account of 302 employers under section 8F of EPF and MP act of 1952 and attached the movable and immovable properties of another three establishments. One of the establishments, in Karaikal, has approached High Court and obtained a stay order.
To address the delay in getting claims, EPFO would be bringing down the time for clearing claims from employees to 10 days, from a month at present, said Chandrasekhar. Efforts are on to give the claims within 10 days, now that the organisation has gone online since April 2012. Though the EPFO has introduced online receipt of Electronic Challan cum Return, several employers are yet to register their establishment on the Employer e-Sewa Portal. In Puducherry only 60 percent of the employers have registered on the portal, said the Commissioner. The employees of registered establishments can get themselves registered on the portal to generate their e-pass book, which would enable them to update the status every month. This has come in place of the earlier practice of generating slips once annually.
The commissioner said that EFPO has started collecting Aadhar number and linking it with the beneficiary. No claims have been stopped for non-supply of Aadhar number, he added.