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UPPCL constitutes committee for investing employees’ PF in FIs
The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) on Tuesday constituted a committee to invest the power sector employees’ provident fund in financial institutions and also mandated
The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) on Tuesday constituted a committee to invest the power sector employees’ provident fund in financial institutions and also mandated putting employees’ representatives on the provident fund trusts through election only.
This comes amid the ongoing controversy over the investment of more than Rs 26,00 crore employees’ PF in the Mumbai-based Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) in violation of rules.
These decisions were taken at the trust board’s meeting chaired by principal secretary, energy and UPPCL chairman, Arvind Kumar at the Shakti Bhawan here.
UPPCL managing director, M Devraj, director finance, Sudhir Arya and director, personnel and appointment, AK Purvar also attended the meeting.
The investment committee headed by the UPPCL director, finance , will take a call on the investment of all the PF money that was been invested in banking institutions including the DHFL, against rules and now has been retrieved from them.
“While we are still fighting a legal case against the DHFL to retrieve over Rs 26,00 crore from it, we have already got the PF that had been invested into the PNB Housing and some other institutions,” said a senior UPPCL official.
“The investment committee constituted today will take the decision on further investment of the PF that we have got back from the PNB etc and also invest regular PF in keeping with the investment guidelines,” he added.
The Board, according to sources, on Tuesday made it mandatory that representatives of employees and pensioners in both the employees’ provident fund Trust and employees’ contributory provident fund Trust will come through election only and not through nomination.
“The director, personnel and appointment has been asked to start conducting exercise to hold elections for the appointment of representatives of employees and pensioners in both the Trusts soon,” said the official. Around half a dozen trustees in the Board of Trustees act as representatives of employees and pensioners.
The foundation of the PF scam that the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) is currently probing was allegedly laid in December, 2016 when the Board of Trustees of the UP power sector employees’ PF Trust gave a green signal for investment of the PF in unscheduled private financial institutions.
The first investment under the new guidelines was made in the PNB Housing in December, 2016 but the first investment (of Rs 18 crore) in the DHFCL was made on March 17, 2019 as the investment in Mumbai-based housing company continued till July this year when an anonymous complaint alerted authorities, prompting them to order a departmental inquiry.
