The District Consumer Commission in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, has held the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) responsible for poor service after it wrongly reduced an employee’s service period while calculating his pension-withdrawal benefit.
According to LiveLaw.in, the case involved Abhinay Katoch, who worked as a clerk at DAV Public School from April 2024 to March 2025. His provident fund and pension contributions were regularly deducted and deposited with EPFO. His passbook showed total pension contributions of Rs 14,230. But when he applied for withdrawal, EPFO credited only Rs 12,750.
The argument by EPFO was that the employee had a 16 day non contributory period, making his service 10 months and 11 days, which they rounded down to 10 months. Based on this, they applied a lower calculation factor. However, the Commission found no evidence of any non contributory period. It ruled that the employee had actually worked for 11 months and 12 days, and EPFO’s rounding down was arbitrary.
The Commission clarified that pension withdrawal benefits are not a direct refund of contributions but are calculated using statutory factors. EPFO had used the correct wage ceiling of Rs 15,000 per month but applied the wrong factor, leading to a short payment.
As a result, EPFO was ordered to pay the shortfall of Rs 1,350 with 9 per cent interest from the date of short payment, plus Rs1,000 compensation for mental harassment and Rs 2,500 towards litigation costs.
