1. Employee Provident Fund – A brief Introduction

Employee Provident Fund Scheme is one of the most useful employee beneficial scheme introduced by Ministry of Labour. It is one of the ideal retirement fund. It is a type of savings account where both employer and employee contributes an equal amount at regular intervals. Such contribution can be made only by those employers who are registered and employees of registered employers. Employer registration can be either through statute mandate or voluntary. Provisions w.r.t EPF is governed by The Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (PF Act).

As per the PF Act, every company/organisation employing more than 20 individuals including employees who are on contract is mandatorily required to register under PF Act. Once the PF Act is applicable, employer organisation continues to be governed by the PF Act even if the number of employees falls below 20 at any time.

Further, it is not mandatorily applicable to all employees of registered establishment. Only such employees earning upto Rs 15,000 are eligible to be covered under the PF Act and can make contribution. Both employer and employee who are not mandated by PF Act, can voluntarily register and contribute for PF.

PF Fund is administered and managed by The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and assists Central board of Trustees, EPF a statutory body formed by the PF Act.

2. PF Payment Online

Though contribution to PF account is made both by employer and employee, payment is to be made to PF account by employer who is registered with PF Act. It is mandatory for all establishments to pay PF online from September 2015. Online PF payment can be made by the employer either on EPFO website or through authorised bank website (if bank allows direct payment through their website) in which employer has an account and net banking. Presently EPFO has tie up arrangement with 10 banks to collect EPFO dues and banks are SBI, PNB, Indian Bank, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

3. Steps for PF Payment Online

• Login to unified portal of EPFO using your Electronic Challan cum Return      (ECR) portal credentialshttps://unifiedportal-emp.epfindia.gov.in/epfo/
• Ensure PF details of establishment such as establishment ID, Name, address, exemption status etc shown are correct
• From ‘Payment’ option drop down select ‘ECR upload’
• Select ‘Wage Month’, ‘Salary Disbursal Date’, Rate of contribution and upload ECR text file
• Uploaded ECR file will be validated for predefined conditions and a screen will appear with a message ‘File Validation Successful’. If ECR file is not validated, error will throw up. Correct the ECR text file for the specified format and upload again till it is successfully validated
• In the same page TRRN generated will be displayed for the uploaded ECR file. Click on ‘Verify’
• Click on ‘Prepare Challan’ button to generate ECR summary sheet
• Now enter Admin/Inspection Charges and click on ‘Generate Challan’ Button
• Click on ‘Finalize’ button after verifying the challan amount
• Click on ‘pay’ against the relevant TRRN
• Select payment mode as ‘online’ and choose from any of the banks appearing in drop down menu and click on ‘continue’
• This action will take you to your bank’s internet banking login website where you need to login and make payment through net banking
• On successful payment, Payment/Transaction-id will be generated and e-Receipt for transaction confirmation will be populated.
• The transaction will be updated at EPFO Portal
• The confirmation of payment against TRRN number will be provided by EPFO

4. Important links for bank specific payments

We have also provided below link for bank specific payment procedure for few banks published on their website:

• SBI
• PNB
• ICICI
• HDFC
• Kotak Mahindra