COVID 19 has overcome all the business since March, 2020 and it is getting really hard for the business and establishments to comply with all legal compliances on time and the liquidity crunch is also hitting hard.
Factories and Establishments are required to pay wages and salary to their workers and employees for these affected periods too. With payment of salary, ESIC and EPF compliance come along.
To provide some relaxations to establishments without affecting earnings of workers, the government has come with various reliefs by EPF and ESIC during covid 19 in compliances requirement with respect to ESIC and EPF.
Also, the government has offered to contribute to EPF accounts of employees to reduce the financial burden of factories.
In this article, we have discussed all relaxations given by the central government to circumvent this epidemic.
To cope-up with the unprecedented situation of COVID 19, the Central government has allowed a grace period of 30 days (from 16th April, 2020 to 16th May, 2020) to file Electronic Return cum Challan (ECR) for the month of March, 2020.
In ECR filed till 15th May, 2020, employer is required to declare actual date of disbursement of wages for the month of March, 2020 in ECR and remit the contribution and administrative/inspection charges on or before 15th May, 2020.
Source: (No. C-I/Misc./2019-20/Vol.II/Part./9 dated 15th April, 2020)
Source: No. C-I/Misc./2019-20/Vol.II/Part./9 dated 15th April, 2020, No. C-I/Misc./2020-21/Vol.I./1112 dated 15th May, 2020
Under Atmanirbhar Bharat package, statutory rate of EPF contribution for both employer and employee has been reduced from 12% to 10%.
Reduced date of EPF is applicable for the month of May, 2020, June, 2020 and July, 2020.
Reduced rate of EPF is applicable for all class of establishments covered under EPF and MP Act, 1952 except:
Reduced rate is not applicable to establishments eligible for PMGKY benefits, since the entire employees and employer contributions (totaling 24% of wages) is being contributed by the Central Government.
There is no change in the administrative charges (0.5% of EPF wages) and EDLI contributions (0.5% of wages) both payable by employer.
Source: Notification dated 18th May, 2020
The Central Government announced Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana Package (PMGKY) to help the poor fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a part of this package, the Central government announced to deposit both employer contribution (12%) and employee contribution (12%) to EPF Account for three months-March, 2020, April, 2020 and May 2020.
Only those organizations who have employees upto 100 and 90% or more of such employees should be drawing monthly wages less than INR 15,000.
Employees eligible for contribution:
Source: Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana
Earlier, payment of Contribution and administrative/inspection charges is a prerequisite for filing ECR.
However, to enable establishments to complete compliances smoothly during Lockdown, Electronic Return Cum Challan (ECR) can be filed without simultaneous payment of contribution.
ECR shall not stand lapsed and will be available for payment at future date also.
Dues may be remitted within the due date or within extended time, if any, as announced by the Central Govt. The Central government has waived any damages for delay in deposit of contribution during lockdown period.
Those entities which are eligible for PMGKY scheme, then they can file declaration for the month of March, 2020 and April, 2020 till 15th May, 2020.
Source: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: ECR FILING AND PAYMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONS
In the fight against COVID-19, all factories and establishments are temporarily closed down. In this period, Employees and workers may get short of funds. Therefore, the government has allowed employees to take non-refundable EPF Advances working in establishments and factories.
Any member of EPF scheme with UAN (Universal Account Number) employed in any factory or establishment is eligible to take advances.
Refund amount is allowed for least of the following amounts:
Dado que el retiro no es reembolsable, no existe obligación de devolver el importe.
El proceso para solicitar el anticipo también es completamente en línea. Por lo tanto, cualquier empleado puede solicitar dicho importe si su UAN está validado con Aadhar y si los datos KYC de su cuenta bancaria y número de móvil están vinculados al UAN.
Fuente: (N.º C_I/Misc./2019-20/Vol.II/Part/ de fecha 28 de marzo de 2020)
PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES SOBRE EL ANTICIPO DE EPF PARA COMBATIR LA PANDEMIA DE COVID-19
La Sección 14B de la Ley de EPF de 1952 establece la recuperación de daños al empleador que incumpla el pago de la contribución en la fecha de vencimiento.
Durante esta epidemia, el Gobierno Central ha aclarado que el retraso en el depósito de las contribuciones durante el periodo de confinamiento se debe a razones operativas y económicas, y que el empleador no tiene intención dolosa al respecto.
Por lo tanto, no se iniciará ningún procedimiento para la imposición de daños punitivos por el retraso en el depósito de contribuciones o cargos administrativos durante el periodo de confinamiento.
Fuente: (N.º C-I/Misc./2020-21/Vol.I./1112 de fecha 15 de mayo de 2020)
Para hacer frente a la pandemia de COVID-19, la fecha límite de la contribución al ESIC se ha ampliado para los meses de febrero y marzo de 2020 de la siguiente manera:
Fuente: (N.º P-11/14/Misc./1/2019-Rev. de fecha 16 de marzo de 2020 leído junto con el aviso de fecha 13 de abril de 2020)
Leer más sobre la reducción de la tasa de ESIC del 6,5% al 4%
La fecha límite para la presentación de la declaración del ESIC correspondiente al periodo de octubre de 2019 a marzo de 2020 se ha ampliado del 11 de mayo de 2020 al 11 de junio de 2020
Fuente: (N.º P-11/12/Misc./1/2019(M)-Rev. II de fecha 18 de mayo de 2020)
