A week after turning down its petition for relaxation of penalty, the employees’ provident fund organisation (EPFO), Ludhiana, has recovered ₹3.67 crore from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Science University (Gadvasu) by attaching one of its bank accounts.
Since the university had failed to fulfil the conditions laid out by the organisation, EPFO on December 11 rejected the Gadvasu’s plea to waive the ₹3.67-crore penalty out of the total ₹8.5 crore slapped on it for not extending benefits under the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act to all its eligible staffers.
The provident fund organisation had initiated an inquiry against the educational institute in October 2017 after the latter was found committing default.
“Instead of submitting the documents sought by EPFO, the university tried to misguide the authorities by delaying tactics and unreasonably demanded further opportunities time and again,” the recent EPFO orders stated.
Regional PF commissioner 2 Brij Mohan Singh said total ₹3.6 crore has been recovered by attaching university SBI’s account.
“We have communicated to the university about attaching the bank account. The university was willing to make all the recovery as the final decision on the case was already made last week,” Brij Mohan said.
{{/usCountry}}“We have communicated to the university about attaching the bank account. The university was willing to make all the recovery as the final decision on the case was already made last week,” Brij Mohan said.
{{/usCountry}}“The case now stands closed since all the recovery, both employers’ and employees’ share of the total penalty, has been made by EPFO in the case,” he added.
EPFO has already recovered the employers’ share worth ₹4.48 crore out of the total defaulting amount after attaching one of the bank accounts of the institute in September this year following which Gadvasu had filed a plea for relaxation in employees’ share penalty.
However, despite repeated attempt, comments of Gadvasu comptroller Amarjit Singh could not be elicited.