GUWAHATI, Feb 22 – An amount of Rs 32 crore is due as penalty from defaulting establishments in the North-east to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) during 2002-03, while the corresponding figure for the entire country is Rs 600 crore. Revealing this, the North-east Regional PF Commissioner (FAEP) Pankaj today said the process of recovering the penalty was under way.
The EPFO in the North-east covers 3,863 establishments catering to 2,22,000 subscribers up to March 31, 2002. Of them, 646 establishments are defaulters while 2,800 have been irregular in contributing their employees’ PF amounts. ‘The irregular contributors, however, include many who may have delayed payment by just one or two days, and hence the overall scenario is not as grim as may seem from the statistics,” Pankaj said, while addressing the media today.
The EPFO which is celebrating its golden jubilee year, covers around four lakh establishments catering to three crore subscribers. However, this four crore constitutes just eight per cent of the total employees/workers as 92 per cent of the employees in the unorganised sector are yet to reap the PF benefits.
In order to reach out to more people and serve them in a more efficient manner, the EPFO has introduced some new schemes like the Business Process Reengineering (BPR), National Social Security Number (NSSN) and Housing Scheme, Pankaj said. ‘While the BPR is nothing but effectiveness reform, the NSSN is a bio-metric identification number having multiple use and will act as a citizens register,’ he added.