Although Byju’s had assured that it would make all pending provident fund (PF) contributions of June by mid July, it looks like the ed-tech firm has again failed to pay the PF to a majority of its employees. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had reportedly reminded the firm about the pending contributions.
Regulations of EPFO dictate that a company must deposit PF funds for a given month by the 15th of the following month. Failure to comply may result in penalties ranging from 5-100 per cent of the amount.
As per EPFO data, Think and Learn, the parent company of Byju’s, had not made PF contributions for a majority of its employees during FY24. In April, the PF contributions for 3,164 employees were paid after a delay of 36 days, while only 31 employees received their payments for May.
While the firm had made PF contributions for almost 25,000 employees earlier, it had contributed towards only 738 employees in June. In the first three months of 2023, the ed-tech firm had made PF contributions for less than 13,000 employees.
However, the company claims that it has cleared all PF pending dues till June for its employees, as reported by Money Control, and that only certain authentication issues remain to be sorted out between the employees and the EPFO, individually
Recently, Byju’s has not only laid off thousands of employees, but also surrendered some of its office spaces in order to save costs. Resignations of some senior executives of the firm only added to its woes.