BL Kashyam tanks on charges of PF evasions and has been asked to pay Rs 594 crore
BL Kashyap and Sons is one of the fast-growing construction company whose clients include Microsoft, IBM, Taj Hotels and Delhi's international airport.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has said that if the company does not clear the dues by August 15, then recovery proceedings will be initiated against it for evasion of workers' PF payments from April 2005 to December 2010.
EFPO, the retirement fund regulator, has also filed a police complaint against some of the top officials of BL Kashyam and sons for forging employee muster rolls and submitting fake records. This was revealed after a forensic analysis exposed that the same thumb impression was put against the records of several employees.
According to a newsreport in Economic Times, BL Kashyap and Sons have denied the allegations and said the EPFO order is 'erroneous, misconceived and perverse on various grounds'. It further added, "No employee has complained against us. Moreover, no beneficiary, for whom the recovery is being made, have been identified".
The company also said it was studying the order along with examining and considering legal re-course on the allegation.
The provident fund rules stipulate that 12% of the basic salary of all employees earning up to Rs 6,500 a month must be compulsorily deposited in their PF accounts. Then even an employer makes a matching contribution.
The regulator received complaints on the company between 2005 and 2009; the company was denying the retirement benefit to workers across its construction sites. Also, the regulator, EFPO found huge variation between the wage payments according to the balance sheet and the records submitted to the PF office. This discrepancy led the to suspicion about its claims.
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