Shares of BL Kashyap & Sons hit a 20 per cent lower circuit on Thursday following media reports that the company had been charged with provident fund (PF) evasion.
The Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation has warned that if the company fails to pay Rs 593 crore in PF dues and penalties, recovery proceedings will be initiated against it for evasion of workers’ PF payments from April 2005 to December 2010, according to media reports. The company’s stock closed down Rs 3.80, at Rs 15.25, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday.
In a clarification issued to BSE, BL Kashyap said the order passed by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner was totally erroneous, misconceived and perverse on various grounds, including that the ‘employees’ construed as ‘excluded employees’ under the EPF Act, had also been included. No employee had complained against the company and no beneficiary for whom the alleged recovery was being made had been identified, the company said in its clarification.