Amidst ongoing tensions between Byju’s with its lenders, and auditors tendering resignation, it has now surfaced that the edtech unicorn has not deposited the provident fund (PF) money for several of its employees. A number of employees from the company have accused the edtech startup, among which four of them have shared screenshots of their PF account passbook and salary slips. Data from the EPFO portal also show that the business hasn’t made the required monthly deposits.
According to the EPFO Data, Byju’s parent company, Think and Learn Pvt Ltd, did not pay most of its employees’ PF contributions in FY24. Only 31 employees’ accounts received the payment for the May PF contribution, as opposed to 3,164 employees who did so after a 36-day delay for the payment for the April PF contribution.
The months of December 2022, January 2023, February, and March saw PF contributions from Byju’s. But the data show that not all employee accounts got this payment. The data also show that Byju’s PF payments have not been regular for a while. Employees have occasionally only received the PF money due for 2020 in June 2023, for example.
According to EPFO regulations, a company must deposit the PF funds for a given month by the 15th of the following month. Any delay could result in penalties ranging from 5 to 100% of the total. This delay, according to HR and compliance experts, maybe a sign of financial difficulties at India’s most valuable startup.
Byju’s has been consistently engaging the headlines recently due to allegations of debt default, recent ED raids, reported flaws in financial matters, and an impending investigation by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
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