PF registration after 3 years from the date of company established

Dear All,

There is a little bit of confusion for me. I work in a construction company in Maharashtra where 10 employees are working. The company was established 3 years ago as a private limited company. Now, we are thinking of starting PF for the employees.

In this case, I would like to know if the company enrolls now, whether the company has to pay a contribution from the date of registration or from the date of enrollment to PF. People are telling me different rules, so I am confused.

Please guide.

Dhananjay

For 10 employees, PF is not applicable. It becomes applicable in the month during which, on any day, the establishment employs 19 or more individuals. PF is payable only from the month in which the number of employees reaches 20 or above, not for earlier periods.

Dear Dhananjay,

The EPF Act is only applicable if there are 20 or more employees working in an organization. If the number of employees is less than 20, in that case, you need to apply for Voluntary EPF registration, and for that, a letter of consent from all employees is required.

Regarding your concern about EPF remittance, you need to pay contributions from the month in which 20 or more employees are deployed. For example, if the number of employees in the month of January was 20 and you register your organization in the month of April, you have to pay arrears from January to March.

Thank you for your response. I will now proceed with the matter.

Dhananjay

Hello,

In my friend's company, there are more than 20 people working, and the company was established in December 2018. They are deducting PF amounts from employees; however, they are not registered yet.

Now, he has a question: does he have to pay the full amount from December 2018 till date? If so, what would be the deadline in months, and what would be the penalties?

There are two queries.

Reply to query no. 1 - The number of employees is 10. How have you counted the manpower? Have you considered the contractual employees, if any, in your organization? For example, sweepers, office boys, security, etc. The authorities will check your ledger book for cost booking. If they find any booking related to manpower cost, they will consider that number. Please check your records for the last 3 years.

Reply to query no. 2 - First of all, deducting PF without having any PF Code is illegal. You should immediately apply for a PF code effective from December 2018, as you have 20+ employees from that day. You will be required to pay penalties, etc., for the period of December 2018 to March 2019 if you obtain your PF Code before the 15th of May 2019.

S. K. Bandyopadhyay (Howrah, WB)

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