The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has initiated prosecution proceedings against four organisations for non-compliance of the EPF Scheme. In two instances, the employer has been accused of deducting the members’ share of Provident Fund contribution from the wages but not remitting the same, which amounts to a criminal breach of trust, a statement from the EPFO said.
FIRs have been filed under Sections 406 and 409 of the Indian Penal Code against Ravipati Broadcasters and Vasan Dental Care. In addition, the police have also filed a charge sheet against VB Bakery under the same sections in the special court for economic offences in Bengaluru, the statement said.
A prosecution case has been filed against United Spirits for allegedly hiding and non-declaration of change in ownership of the establishment after it was acquired by Diageo PLC. “The establishment (United Spirits) is an exempted establishment having 2,200 members and a corpus of approximately ₹243 crore. As per rules, upon acquisition, the trust with all its funds is required to be surrendered to the government. The establishment and the trustees deliberately did not report the change and are liable to be prosecuted,” the statement said. The EPFO office filed a case against three senior officials and nine trustees. The office has initiated the process of cancelling the exemption granted to United Spirits.
“Even after repeated reminders through mails, SMS, phone calls and continuous visits by field officers, the defaulting establishments failed to comply. EPFO will be initiating prosecution against other chronic defaulting establishments in due course,” said Maneesh Agnihotri, Regional PF Commissioner – I, Bengaluru region.