And West Bengal's industry, which tops the list of PF defaults with around Rs 200 crore in arrears, got a jolt today when the Calcutta High Court upheld the arrest powers of the PF officials, about which the recovery cell itself was not aware even last year.

On September 18, officers of the RPFC's recover cell arrested partner Deepak Bijoya of Joinery Manufacturing Co Pvt Ltd, for non-payment of PF dues amounting to Rs 7.13 lakh.

This is the first time an arrest warrant has been executed by officers of the recovery cell. Bijoya was sent to Alipore Central Jail.

Section 14 of the PF Act of 1988 empowers the recovery cell to prosecute and even arrest directors or partners of defaulting companies. But officers of this cell were not aware of this power before the current RPFC(I), SKKhanna, took over as the top PF official for West Bengal and the Andamans, and activated the cell.

Earlier, when the police was involved, the arrest warrants were rarely executed.

The recovery cell has already issued 10 to 15 arrest warrants which are awaiting execution. Some of the companies whose directors face arrest warrants are Premchand Jute Mills, Nuddea Jute Mills and Rollsprint (Packaging) Ltd.

Under the recovery provisions of the PF Act, a director or partner of a defaulting company can be sentenced to 30 days simple imprisonment, after which he is released for a day. If he fails to pay up after this, he is again jailed for 30 days.

Khanna, the RPFC-I, told The Financial Express that his office has two main objectives -- to settle the claims and issue account slips to the workers, and to settle claims within a given time.

According to Khanna, 71,187 cases have been settled between April 1 and August 30 this year, against 39,839 cases during the corresponding period last year. The RPFC'soffice has issued 7.93 lakh account slips to the workers in the five months to August 30, 1998, against 3.21 lakh last year.

Over 10 lakh account slips have been issued in the period April 1 to September 18, against 8.75 lakh in full 12-month period to March 31, 1998.

Recoveries of arrears from the unexempted and exempted sector have jumped by over 1200 and 58 per cent respectively, over the corresponding period last year.

Khanna's statisticians pointed out that recoveries from the exempted sector have jumped to Rs 8.57 crore in the five months to August 30 this year, against Rs 65.50 lakh in the same period last year. Recoveries from the exempted sector rose to Rs 3.22 crore in the same period, from Rs 1.98 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Current recoveries from the unexempted sector was Rs 37.81 lakh to July 31, 1998, against nil in the first four months of fiscal 1997. In the exempted category, current recoveries increased to Rs 1.84 crore to July 31, 1998, against Rs 42.09 lakh inthe corresponding period last year.

Khanna attributed the record collections to the efforts of the staff at the PF office here, which had initially opposed him on every disciplinary issue when he had taken over.