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EPFO directs vet varsity to take employees’ consent for penalty waiver
GADVASU had approached EPFO last month, seeking a waiver of its employees’ shares which is around ₹3.98 crore against the total default amount of ₹8.5 crore
A fortnight after recovering ₹4.48 crore as employer’s share after attaching the bank account of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary And Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has asked the varsity to take consent of its employees for the penalty waiver of their shares.
The university had approached the EPFO last month, seeking a waiver of the employees’ shares which is around ₹3.98 crore against the total default amount of ₹8.5 crore. The varsity authorities claimed that during the period from 2006 to 2017, they did not debit any capital from the employees’ accounts as an equal PF share.
As per the EPFO records, more than 500 employees of GADVASU, mostly working on contractual basis, are yet to be covered under the EPF Act.
TO SEND REVISED APPLICATION BY NEXT WEEK
“There is a procedure that is needed to be followed. If an organisation is seeking to waive off the employees’ share from the total default amount, they need to first take the consent of all its employees who did not get the coverage in that period before moving the application,” said regional provident fund commissioner-2, Ludhiana, Brij Mohan Singh. “We have sent the notice regarding the same to GADVASU, directing them to comply with the consent procedure and move the application again. The university has been asked to submit its revised application by next week,” he said.
‘CONSENT OF EMPLOYEES MANDATORY’
The EPFO officials said that the consent of employees is necessary in such cases so as to avoid the situation of any kind of objection by them in the future. “If the consent is not taken prior, any employees can come later and raise objection on the waive off in such cases,” one of the officials said.
The revised application has to be sent to EPFO regional commissioner Dheeraj Gupta.
