Frontier defaults on PF dues

City-based Frontier Information Technologies Limited, has not been regular in depositing statutory dues related to provident fund, empolyees' state insurance (ESI) and other statutory dues including professional taxes.

According the company's 16th annual report, the provident fund dues were Rs 12,61,069, ESI dues were Rs 59,220, professional tax dues were Rs 1,85,667 and the other statutory dues were Rs 15,10,752.

The company which follows a January to December acocunting year has also incurred cash losses during 2003 and the immediate previous financial year.

The turnover of the company dipped 41.42 per cent to Rs 6.08 crore for the year ended on December 31, 2003 from Rs 10.38 crore it achieved previous year. The company managed to bring down net losses for the year by 41 per cent to Rs 3.11 crore from 5.28 crore for the previous year.

The company is planning to put greater emphasis on garnering more offshore projects rather than onsite projects, information technology enabled services (ITES) and business process outsourcing (BPO) projects.

The report said that in the last few years projects have been witnessing a significant shift to offshore projects from onsite business.

While the onsite consultancy business would continue to have a certain level of demand, significant growth would nevertheless be seen in offshore software business opportunities.

The report further said that the company would also be looking for opportunities related to maintenance and enhancement of software which would provide sustained and predictable revenue to the company.

The company is also exploring the opportunities in the areas of technical help desk and back office operations in the IETS and BPO sectors.