This article is written by Aiswariya.R, a 4th-year student studying in School of Excellence in Law. This article deals with the Employee Provident Funds, 1952, its online process to get the PF amount and other benefits under this Act.
Table of Contents
The Employee Provident Funds, 1952 is a beneficial legislation enacted for the betterment of the future of industrial worker:
This Act is enacted as a social security measure which falls under the ground of “retirement benefit”, the object of this Act is to inculcate, non withdrawable financial benefit, the sum is payable normally on retirement or on the death of the employee. Administration of the scheme given under this act is done by the central board, state board, and regional committee, a chief executive committee appointed and constituted by the central government.
The central government, after consulting with any of the states constitute the state board in the following state, as provided for in the scheme. Constitution of the state board is done by the notification in the official gazette. Central government from time to time prescribes the duties to be performed by the state board and the powers exercised by the state government. The following scheme will provide the terms condition subject to which a member of state board is appointed, time place and procedure for conducting meetings etc. Every board of trustee constituted under this section is a Body Corporate, being a body corporate, it has perpetual succession, a common seal and right to sue or get sued in its name.
Until state board is constituted, the Central Government may set up Regional Committee, which is under the control of Central Government, it works under the advice of the following person:
The employer is under a statutory obligation to deduct a specified percentage of the contribution from the employee’s salary for provident fund. The employer should also contribute such percentage for provident fund. An employee who gets more than 15,000 is eligible for getting the provident fund.
This Act contains nearly 20 sections and four schedules. Section 7E, F, G, H, M, N is omitted, section 20 is repealed.
Applicability of the Act – section 1 of this Act deals with the application of the Act. This is applicable to “every factory engaged in any industry specified in schedule I”.
Some workers will not come under this Act. They are Casual, or temporary workers can’t be considered as employee held in the case Bikar cold storage co. Ltd. V. Regional PF Commissioner.
The Act does not apply to the following things. Any establishment registered under the co-operative society Act, 1912. Any state-related co-operative society employed less than 50 people and working without the aid of power. From the date on which the establishment is set up, where the establishment as:
Central Government also has the power to exempt any class of establishment, on such condition mentioned in the notification:
Eligibility For getting EPF- Any person is eligible, who is employed:
This Act was constitutionally challenged on the ground that it is:
Section 5 gives wholly unrestricted unguided direction to the central government to frame a scheme, and it appears on the other hand that the Act is full of carefully laid down principles to guide the central government which is held in the case R.P.F. Commr. V. L.R.F Works, A.I.R 1962 Punj. 507
When they say that this scheme has retrospective effect, the employer cannot be asked to pay the employees contribution for the period antecedent to the notification applying the scheme because he has no right to deduct the same for the future wages payable to the employee. The payment of employee contribution by the employer with the corresponding right to deduct the same from the wages of the employees could be only for the current period during which the employer also has to pay his contribution, which is held in the case District exhibitors Assn.,Muzaffarnagar & others V. Union of India (1991) II LLJ 115 (SC).
They were re-employment by the petitioner on a temporary basis. It was held that the employer cannot be asked to pay a contribution in respect of re-employed employees on a temporary basis which is held in the case Bombay printers LTD. & Others V. Union of India and others (1992)I LLJ 816 (BOM).
The fund shall be administered by the central board constituted under section 5A of the Act. The scheme shall take effect either prospectively or retrospectively.
The scheme Established the purpose of providing life insurance benefits to the employees. The benefit under the scheme is to provide the incentive to the members to save more in the Provident fund account. The benefit under this scheme is linked to the amount of accumulation in the Provident fund account of the member. All the members of the employee’s Provident Fund Scheme are covered as members of the employee’s deposit linked insurance scheme also.
For the benefit of providing family pension and life insurance benefit. Following benefit package is:
Retirement pension under the new scheme will be payable on fulfilling minimum 10 years eligible service and on attaining the age of 58 years.
This form is submitted by the beneficiary if the employee is departed, to the benefit of EPF, EPS and EDLI. The amount is paid directly to the beneficiary account, or they will send through money order.
This form is submitted for partial withdrawals, used for purposes of house renovation, availing loans, for education, medical treatment etc. eligible criteria will vary depending on the purpose of withdrawal.
This form is used to claim the withdrawal benefit:
This form is also used by the family member of the employee in the following circumstances like:
This form is used by employers for enrolling new employees for this scheme. The new employee will give his personal details. This form helps the EPFO to register individuals who are joining the first time for this scheme. The form should be submitted by the employer before the 15th of every month, the official website of the EPFO provides the form where we can download.
An employee who is contributing to the EPF scheme is already eligible for the employee linked insurance scheme. In case an employee is departed, this form helps the beneficiary to get the benefit. By submitting this form, the beneficiary is eligible to get insurance benefit of rs.4.5 lakhs and bonus benefit of rs.1.5 lakh (maximum benefit of Rs. 6 Lakh).
This form is used for withdrawal of pension on a monthly basis after retirement.
The employee must fill this form while joining a new company. This is a self-declaration regarding the transfer of EPF, details regarding last EPF account must be filled in this form.
This form is submitted to pay the premium amount for the LIC policy; this form should be submitted to EPF Commissioner after getting an attestation from the employer.
This form is submitted to use to online withdrawal of EPF amount; this form is used to withdraw the EPF amount (above 50,000) before completing 5 years of service. Senior citizens must submit 15H for this facility.
This form is submitted by the member who is not having UAN number after 2014.
The employee who is under the scheme shall submit this Form 2 for nomination. The nominated person will get the EPF fund amount if the employee (EPF member) is departed.
Universal account number (UAN) is number given to an employee by the Ministry of Employment and Labour under the government of India, who is maintaining PF account. It used to know information or track information done by his employer regarding his provided fund (PF). When an employee joined in the new organisation, he was assigned with new PF account, after UAN came into existence, the member of the assemble (employee) all his PF account associated with multiple Ids of difference organization at one place. So through UAN, difficulties faced by the employee when he/she joins the new organization is overcome, with UAN they can track the activities if there are any payment issues.
Contribution for EPF is two parts, one is by the employee, and the other is by the employer.
Contribution by the employee is, including basic wage and dearness allowance is -12%.
Contribution on the part of the employer is-
For example, the employee is getting a basic salary and dearness allowances at rupees 15, 000.
Employee’s contribution to EPF is 12% of 15,000 that is 1,800.
Employer’s contribution to EPF is 8.33 % of 15,000 that is 1,250.
Online claim process reduces the time from 20 days to 10 days, follow the below-given steps for EPF online submission.
EPF claim status can be checked through online or offline,
The status of withdrawal/transfer claim submitted.
Online- Member can check the online claim status by visiting the UAN portal or through visiting the official website of EPFO.
Offline- Any of the PF office by accessing the EPFO website can track the status of the claim made.
Employees Provident Fund Scheme,1952 came to India through Para 83 of the government of India notification in 2008, October 1. Employee Pension Scheme.1995 was created by a special provision in respect of international workers as mentioned in para 43-A. After 2014 it became easily accessible through EPFO website portal. This Act is created mainly for the purpose of encouraging saving during the period of employment, where they use it in their old age, sickness or for any emergency purposes.
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