Provident Fund scam: 89 fake firms avail Rs 18 cr benefits under Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, probe launched
News/Article Date: 4th May, 2024
Relating to which Act: The Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952;
Penalty under the Act: Whoever, for the purpose of avoiding any payment to be made by himself under this Act [the Scheme, the [Pension] Scheme] or the Insurance Scheme] or of enabling any other person to avoid such payment knowingly makes or causes to be made any false statement or false representation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine of five thousand rupees, or with both].
Applicable to which State: Whole of India
Type: News Report
Pertains to: Establishments and Employers covered by the Act
Relevance of this news: Karma Global is in the business of HR Services, Payroll, Outsourcing and Regulatory Compliances right from its inception in 2004 and since then, has brought in a lot of efficiencies and technological upgradations with experts on its roll, to ease the hassles of Payroll Processing, Temp Staffing, On-boarding, Employee Life Cycle, Statutory, Regulatory and Payroll compliances by providing customized solutions to all its elite clients.
Now Karma Management is also fully into labour compliances for nearly 18 years and is helping both establishments and workers for fulfillment of obligations as per the laws of the land. It has over 200 staff, both direct and indirect on its rolls and operates on pan India basis. Recently, it has diversified into foreign shores as well, into countries like US, UK, UAE, Canada, Philippines, and Asia for handling payroll, outsourcing, recruitment and governance.
And in the current instance – In what appears to a major scam, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in Pune has found as many as 89 fake companies that have availed benefits to the tune of Rs 18 crore from the government under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY).
Manoj kumar Asrani, enforcement officer at EPFO, Pune, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at the Wanavdi police station on Friday. Police have booked the “proprietors” of the 89 establishments for cheating and forgery, under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code.
Subject: Provident Fund scam: 89 fake firms avail Rs 18 cr benefits under Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, probe launched
Appended is the complete news item
Provident Fund scam: 89 fake firms avail Rs 18 cr benefits under Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, probe launched
Manojkumar Asrani, enforcement officer at EPFO, Pune, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at the Wanavdi police station on Friday
In what appears to be a major scam, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in Pune has found as many as 89 fake companies that have availed benefits to the tune of Rs 18 crore from the government under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY).
Manojkumar Asrani, enforcement officer at EPFO, Pune, lodged the first information report (FIR) in this case at the Wanavdi police station on Friday. Police have booked the “proprietors” of the 89 establishments for cheating and forgery, under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the FIR, in view of job losses in private companies during the Covid-19 outbreak, the central government (in October 2020) had launched the ABRY to increase employment opportunities in the post Covid recovery phase.
Under this scheme, the government would for a period of two years provide 24 percent of provident fund (PF) share (employees’ 12 percent and employers’ 12 per cent) to the EPFO registered establishments with up to 1,000 employees, and only the employees’ share (12 percent of wages), for establishments having more than 1,000 employees, it is stated.
The FIR mentions that accused fraudsters posing as “proprietors” of 89 establishments made online applications at the EPFO office in Pune seeking PF registration numbers. An inspection by the EPFO revealed that mobile numbers used for all applications were found to be the same. Also, they got PF numbers by submitting various forged documents like bogus shop act licenses, the FIR stated.
When contacted, the complainant Asrani said, “We found these establishments were fake, they did not exist at the addresses submitted to us. The fake establishments availed financial benefits from the government by submitting fake employee details at the EPFO office.”
The FIR stated that between December 31, 2020 and December 3, 2023, an inspection by the EPFO office found 42 establishments had taken Rs 9,56,76,123 against the names of fake employees. Of this amount, Rs 2,40,85,910 was withdrawn fraudulently. The remaining 47 companies took Rs 8,89,35,246 for their fake employees. Of this amount, Rs 2,21,08,577 was withdrawn, causing misappropriation of PF money under ABRY, the FIR stated.
Senior police inspector Sanjay Patange said that an inspection by EPFO officials revealed that establishments involved in the alleged crime were fake. “We have launched a probe into this case,” he said.
