EPF Payment Online on Employees’ Provident Fund Organization ( EPFO ) Portal

The provisions of Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) is governed by The Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (PF Act). It aims to mobilise the savings of the employees and employer through compulsory contributions to the provident fund.

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

Latest Update

Latest updates – Clarification on proposed Section 115BBH in Budget 2022

1. Losses incurred from one virtual digital currency cannot be set-off against income from another digital currency.
2. Infrastructure cost incurred on mining crypto assets will not be treated as cost of acquisition.

Union Budget 2022 Outcome:

1. Income from transfer of virtual digital assets such as crypto, NFTs will be taxed at 30%.
2. No deduction, except the cost of acquisition, will be allowed while reporting income from transfer of digital assets.
3. Loss from digital assets cannot be set-off against any other income.
4. Gifting of digital assets will attract tax in the hands of receiver.Losses incurred from one virtual digital currency cannot be set-off against income from another digital currency.

The government has decided to retain the EPF interest rate of 8.5% for the financial year 2020-21.

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.

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, the employer’s 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 apply to all employees of registered establishment. Only such employees earning up to 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 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.

From September 2015 it is mandatory for all establishments to pay PF online. 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, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Steps for PF Payment Online

• Login to unified portal of EPFO using your Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) portal credentials https://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

Important list of banks that provide online EPF payment services

Along with the list of authorised banks, we have also provided links for specific payment procedure for few banks published on their website:

• SBI
  
• PNB
  
• Indian Bank
  
• ICICI
  
• HDFC
  
• Kotak Mahindra
  
• Axis Bank
  
• Bank of Baroda

Calculate your total corpus in EPF account through PF tax calculator

Related Articles

EPF withdrawal
PF online transfer procedure
PF claim status