A number of workers have confirmed to TOI about receiving these notices via e mail and courier. ” I’m certain over 6,000 former or present workers have gotten this demand discover simply as I’ve,” one former worker, Kaushik Kumar Lade, informed TOI.Kaushik was a senior supervisor of gross sales on the startup. TOI has reviewed a few of these demand notices, which pertain to the tax quantity deducted by the employer from the taxpayer and deposited to the revenue tax division. Lade stated, “I wrote to the HR division in addition to the administration by e mail about this discover. They responded after about 48 hours saying they’re engaged on it and can clear the funds out as quickly as potential.”
Non-deposit of tax and provident fund deductions from workers is a critical offence underneath Indian legal guidelines. Whereas tax authorities can take motion in opposition to the corporate for these violations, workers should face penalties on the subject of TDS. Up to now, workers of grounded Kingfisher Airways confronted a double whammy when they didn’t get their dues and needed to additionally cope with the claims of the tax division. There have, nonetheless, been authorized pronouncements saying that workers shouldn’t be penalised.
Many Byju’s workers have reached out to the corporate for readability on the matter, with one worker anonymously expressing, “We aren’t certain how and the place this discover leads and our legal responsibility round it. Some readability on it will assist us all.”
The corporate, at present present process an insolvency course of, didn’t reply to request for remark. Pankaj Srivastava, the Nationwide Firm Regulation Tribunal-appointed decision skilled liable for inviting lenders, workers, distributors, and govt to assert unpaid dues, additionally didn’t reply to queries until the time of going to press.
As of Aug 30, govt had registered claims amounting to $101 million with the Insolvency and Chapter Board of India. Earlier this yr, a bunch of Byju’s workers had taken authorized motion in opposition to the struggling firm. TOI had reported that 62 workers issued a requirement discover looking for cost of overdue salaries amounting to greater than Rs 2.3 crore. Based on the report, these salaries have been excellent since Jan 2024, highlighting the severity of the corporate’s monetary woes.
