It is stated on EPFC website:‘As soon as possible and after the close of each
period of currency of contribution, annual statements of accounts will be sent
to each member through the factory or other establishment where the member was
last employed. The statement of accounts in the fund will show the opening
balance at the beginning of the period, amount contributed during the year, the
total amount of interest credited at the end of the period or any withdrawal
during the period and the closing balance at the end of the period. Members
should satisfy themselves as to the correctness of the annual statement of
accounts and any error should be brought through the employer to the notice of
the Provident Fund Office within 6 months of the receipt of the statement’. Our
company, Eclipse Systems Pvt Ltd, however, did not receive the annual statement
of EPF accounts of their employees since the financial year 2002-03 although we
had been reminding the
RPFC concerned about it every now and then. It is our experience that EPFC
employees never respond to any communications sent by us and although it is an
organization set up for social security of our employees, it actually excels in
harassing them by not giving them their annual account slips and while settling
their accounts.
Finding no other way to know the reasons for RPFC lapse in this matter, I
submitted an RTI application dated 24.12.08 requesting for the following
information:
1 Why were annual statement of EPF accounts of the employees of
Eclipse Systems Pvt Ltd not sent by your office to the said company for
distribution amongst their employees since 2002-03 to date?
2 In case the said annual statement of accounts of the employees of
the said company were sent by you but not received by the company, please
supply me copy of some document (eg copy of the relevant page of your dispatch
register etc) for our information along with duplicate copy of the said
accounts for distribution amongst our employees.
3 In case the said annual statement of EPF accounts of the
employees of the said company were not sent by your office yet, a copy each
thereof may kindly be supplied now for distribution among it’s employees.
4 In case the said annual statement of EPF accounts of the
employees of the said company were not sent by your office yet, kindly inform
me the names and designations of the officials concerned in your office for
this defaultand send me a copy of the prescribed rules in your office under
which penal action will now be taken by you for this default against your said
defaulter employees.
I however did not receive any reply to this RTI application nor any orders on
the 1st appeal preferred by me. I therefore preferred 2nd appeal and the same
was heard by Sri R L Sharma, IC on 21.07.09. I found him pleasing to talk but
wholly supportive of the Respondant. He tried to analyse the justification of
information sought by me at which I told him that it was not his job to do such
analysis unless the Respondant objects to supply any information, which point
only he can enquire. In this case, the Respondant had not objected to supply of
any information, even after recipt of his notice for hearing, and hence the
only option for him was to levy penalty for delay and direct the Respondant to
supply the requested information now at the earliest. In regard to point 1
above, the Respondant stated that she could provide only copies of records and
not generate information of the type requested under this point. I submitted
that the intention was for her
to supply copies of documents (notings etc) that must have been made by
various authorities at the time of sending annual statement of EPF accounts
during all the last years under consideration and it will automatically clarify
the reasons for lapse in this regars. Hon IC finally did not levy any penalty
and directed the Respondant to supply the desied information within the next
two weeks. mksinghal
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