Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has formed an enforcement squad to probe into compliance issues by the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, whose owner, Vijay Mallya owes banks over ₹9,000 crore. Mallya, a liquor tycoon and Rajya Sabha MP, left for London on March 2, even as he is being probed for cases of default.

According to a Labour Ministry statement, the EPFO had also slapped a notice of ₹7.62 lakh on the airline for delayed payment of PF dues, adding that the airline contributed PF in March 2012 for 6,185 employees, but compliance to the number of employees had reduced to 3,339 in December 2012.

“The employment strength further dropped after December 2012 due to closure of their operations and remittances were made for two skeletal employees up to September 2015 and thereafter minimum administrative charges were paid,” the statement read.

The Ministry said notices had been issued to the company for penal damages (₹3,34,016), interest dues (₹3,55,678) for bleated remittances for certain months and payment of short remittances of ₹71,910, involving a total liability of ₹7,61,604.

The statement comes close on the heels of Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya saying that his Ministry would soon investigate to check if there were any anomalies in the PF contributions made by Kingfisher Airlines. The Ministry, however, maintained that it had not received any complaint so far.

“There is no complaint available on record either from members/union regarding non-payment of EPF dues by the company,” it said.

According to the Ministry, Kingfisher Airlines had been registered as an employer with EPFO since January 1, 2005, its aviation licence was suspended in October 2012, and its flight operations stopped from December 2012. It said a total of 5,675 PF claims were settled from 2012-13 to employees of Kingfisher Airlines.

Related Topics