The Finance Department has expressed displeasure over the delay in the disposal of General Provident Fund (GPF) cases.
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, DS Mishra said that the Government has to bear the burden of additional interest, because of the non-payment of amount to the retired Government employees on time. He warned of disciplinary action against the employees responsible for the delay in future. Mishra, in a circular sent to all departmental heads, commissioners and collectors, said that the Accountant General (AG) had informed the Government that most of the drawing and disbursing officers were not doing compliance of the disposal of provident fund cases on time.
In the case of final payment of provident fund, standing instructions are there to send proposals to the Accountant General four months ahead of retirement. Whereas, in most of the cases, proposals have been sent several months after retirement, because of that the Government has to bear the loss of interest. Besides, the contributor does not get authority letter in time.
According to Provident Fund rule, it is the responsibility of the drawing and disbursing officer to stop deduction of GPF contribution four months ahead of retirement. But some officers, throwing aside the provision, deduct PF until the date of retirement, which is clear violation of PF rules. As a result of delay on the part of the drawing and disbursing officer in the final payment of general provident fund, the contributor has been getting secured investment with more interest without paying income tax.
Mishra said that the AG has also informed that so-called drawing and disbursement officers, even after receiving the authority letter for final payment, take interest in making the payment in time and make unnecessary delay, as a result large number of contributors demand more interest through legal forums. Such a situation is objectionable.
The AG also brought the fact to the attention of the government that the drawing and disbursing officers were not properly maintaining the GPF passbook, due to which mainly entry of disbursal from the account and their verification could not be made. PF passbook is an important record and is considered as a collateral evidence for GPF case. He said that most of the departmental heads were not giving attention in the final payment of GPF, due to which retirement employees are not getting timely payment.
He asked all the officers to following the instructions strictly.