New Delhi, July 13: In what could further aggravate the woes of corporates, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma's much-hyped amnesty scheme for employers who failed to remit their PF contribution to workers, is likely to be delayed with the ministry apparently adopting a "go slow" tactic in placing it before the Cabinet. The central board of trustees of Employees Provident Fund Organisation had in March approved the scheme, which envisages certain benefits and concessions, including penalties waiver, to the employers for making them pay up their PF arrears as part of measures to ensure compliance and recover the dues of near Rs 1,512 crore.
The ministry was in a fix for placing it before Cabinet since a scheme introduced by the Finance Ministry for enhancing the income tax compliance had yielded only "limited" success, sources said.
Moreover, the present tempo of pounding over defaulters through its new 'Compliance 04' intitiative might be watered down and it might even go against the logic of setting up of a separate directorate of recovery, the sources said.
In the worst scenario, they said the defaulting entities, which exist in State and Central government undertakings as well as private sector, might even take undue advantage of the proposed amnesty scheme.
Indications are that Verma, who is all out to make public the large defaulters, does not wish to take hasty steps on the proposed scheme, in the light that incidentally many non-BJP states had topped the list of defaulters. Bureau Report