Effecting certain provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020 in respect of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 and EPS’ 1995
Contents News/Article Date: 4th May 2023
Relating to which Act: The Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952;
Penalty under the Act: Whoever, for the purpose of avoiding any payment to be made by himself under this Act [the Scheme, the [Pension] Scheme] or the Insurance Scheme] or of enabling any other person to avoid such payment knowingly makes or causes to be made any false statement or false representation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine of five thousand rupees, or with both].
Applicable to which State: All the establishments in the States with PF coverage
Type: EPFO, Ministry of Labour & Employment Circular No. Pension/Supreme Court/Judgement/HPM/2022/Pt issued by Regional PF Commissioner I
Pertains to: Establishments and Members of PF Fund
Relevance of this news: Karma Global is in the business of HR Services, Payroll, Outsourcing and Regulatory Compliances right from its inception in 2004 and since then, has brought in a lot of efficiencies and technological upgradations with experts on its roll, to ease the hassles of Payroll Processing, Temp Staffing, On-boarding, Employee Life Cycle, Statutory, Regulatory and Payroll compliances by providing customized solutions to all its elite clients.
Now Karma Global is also fully into labour compliances for nearly 18 years and is helping both establishments and workers for fulfilment of obligations as per the laws of the land. It has over 200 staff, both direct and indirect on its rolls and operates on pan India basis. Recently, it has diversified into foreign shores as well, into countries like US, UK, UAE, Canada, Philippines, and Asia for handling payroll, outsourcing, recruitment and governance.
And in the current instance: Please refer to the G.O.I Gazette Notification No. S.O. 2060(E) dated 3rd May 2023 (copy attached).
- Vide above Gazette Notification, following provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020 in respect of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 and EPS’ 1995 have been notified:
(i) sub-section (3) of section 15, in so far as it relates to the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995;
(ii) clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 16, in so far as it relates to the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995;
(iii) clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 16;
(iv) sub-section (2) of section 16, in so far as it relates to the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995;
(v) section 143, in so far as it applies in giving effect to the provisions of sub-clause (ii) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 16 in relation to the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995;
(vi) sub-section (1) of section 164 to repeal the corresponding provisions of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 (19 of 1952) specified in item 3 thereof; and
(vii) clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 164 in so far as it relates to the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995.
And in the last instance: In respect of members who have exercised joint option for contributing under the provisions of paragraph 11 of the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 and who are found eligible, the employer’s contribution shall be nine and forty-ninth per cent. (9.49%) of the basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance of each member by increasing one and sixteenth per cent. (1.16%) from the extant eight and one-third per cent. (8.33%); and
(ii) The increased contribution shall be applicable to basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance to the extent such basic wages, dearness allowance and retaining allowance exceed fifteen thousand rupees per month
- The above shall be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of September, 2014
The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in its judgment dated 04.11.2022 in Civil Appeal No. 8143-8144 of2022 titled the Employees Provident Fund Organisation & Anr. etc. Vs. Sunil Kumar B. and Ors. etc., while upholding the validity of the amendments made to the Employees’ Pension Scheme,1995(EPS,1995) vide G.S.R 609 (E) dated 22.08.2014(effective from 01.09.2014) had also given certain directions along with deadlines for complying with the same. Ministry of Labour & Employment has promptly taken all actions within the stipulated deadlines to comply with the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the said order.
Many representations have been received from pensioners/members with request to provide online facility to correct errors in their applications for validations of options/joint options and to file upload.
Accordingly, in the online functionality, a button for deletion application has been provided to the employees. The employee after deleting the application can thereafter if he/she so desires, file a fresh application for validation of options/joint option submitted by the employee.
And in the previous instance: EPFO has made arrangements for obtaining Applications for Validation of Option / Joint Option from pensioners / members as per the Hon’ble Supreme Court order dated 04.11.2022. To facilitate this process, online facility has been made available.
More than 12 lakh applications have been received till date. The online facility was to remain available only till 03.05.2023.
In the meantime, many representations have been received from various quarters seeking extension of time. The issue has been considered and it has been decided that in order to provide a larger window of opportunity and in order to enable all eligible
persons to file their applications, the timeline for filing applications would now be till 26 June, 2023.
And in the past instance – EPFO’s letter dated 23/4/2023 speaks of the steps for online facility available up to 3/5/2023 and also the steps for scrutiny and the parameters for scrutiny and the category of scrutiny, ending with monitoring mechanism and grievance.
Subject: Effecting certain provisions of the Code on Social Security, 2020 in respect of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 and EPS’ 1995–.
Attached is the notification