Notice to NWKRTC for failing to remit EPF

The North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC), headquartered in Hubli, has not remitted over Rs. 116 crore of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), half of which is employees’ contribution, since October 2012 to the KSRTC Employees Contributory Provident Fund Trust.

Following this, the Assistant PF Commissioner (Compliance), Hubli, has issued a notice to NWKRTC Managing Director Umesh H. Kusagal to pay up the dues immediately.

In his notice, dated January 17, 2014, M. Veeramalai, Assistant PF Commissioner, said, “By not transferring the money to the trust, you have committed a criminal offence punishable under Section 14 of the EPF and MP (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1952 in the competent court of law.”

Failure of the NWKRTC to remit the dues came to light during the compliance audit of the corporation by the PF officers recently. Officers found that the NWKRTC had not transferred Rs. 116.89 crore to the trust between October 2012 and November 2013.

Higher interest

General secretary of the KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation H.V. Ananthasubba Rao told The Hindu that the trust would lose the exemption under the PF Act to maintain the PF funds if the NWKRTC continues to default in payment.

As many as six of the federation members are in the managing committee of the trust.

He said against 8.5 per cent interest offered by the EPF Organisation, the trust offers 10 per cent compounding interest to members.

The NWKRTC has not paid the dues for December 2013 too, he added. The trust has been maintaining the funds of all the four State Road Transport Corporations.

While the KSRTC and the NEKRTC are up to date in remitting the dues to the trust, the NWKRTC and the BMTC have been defaulting in payment. BMTC had to pay about Rs. 85 crore, Mr. Rao said.

He said the trust gets 11 per cent interest for its investments from its corpus of about Rs. 2,200 crore and pays 10 per cent interest to members.

There were no complaints about disbursement of the PF dues to the members either, Mr. Rao noted.

‘Will be cleared soon’

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy told The Hindu that dues from all the four corporations would be cleared shortly.

The corporations would get government reimbursement [about Rs. 270 crore] towards student concession passes and it would be used to clear the dues, he said.

BMTC Managing Director Anjum Parvez said the monthly PF contribution of the corporation was about Rs. 16 crore and there was a delay of about three months.