PF office drags ICICI Venture in Subhiksha dues case

The Chennai Employees’ Provident Fund Office (EPFO) has written to ICICI Venture, the largest investor in Subhiksha Trading Services, holding it responsible for non-payment of provident fund (PF) dues by the company. The move comes a day after the EPFO attached Subhiksha’s bank accounts for failing to pay the dues.

The EPFO is of the view that ICICI Venture is also liable to pay the dues, as it has the management control of the failed retailer. The EPFO will wait for a response from ICICI Venture before proceeding further.

An ICICI Venture spokesperson said: “We shall be giving an appropriate response to the EPFO intimation.”

The EPFO has supported its stand of holding ICICI Venture also responsible by citing clauses from the shareholder agreement.

Subhiksha’s PF dues amount to Rs 1.76 crore. Managing Director R Subramanian has offered to pay Rs 73.87 lakh from his personal PF account to partly make up for the shortfall. Now, EPFO has pulled ICICI Venture for the remaining dues of Rs 1 crore.

Though Subramanian has in the past claimed that ICICI Venture holds management control in the beleaguered retailer, ICICI Venture, which holds 23 per cent in Subhiksha, has denied this.

According to a senior EPFO official, Subhiksha was given 15 days, starting February 20, to pay the dues. “We will stick to our target of collecting the dues before March 31, 2009, when the fiscal year comes to an end,” the official told Business Standard on Monday.

The Chennai EPFO has also asked PF offices in other parts of the country to check the status of payments by Subhiksha.