The filings go through every month and everything looks fine. Then a 7A notice arrives asking about the last five years, and the problem turns out to be something structural that nobody flagged at the time. A salary structure holding basic pay too low. An employee taken off ESI in the month their wage crossed ₹21,000. A contractor whose workers were never actually enrolled anywhere.
Transparian works as your PF ESI consultant — or, if you’d rather split it, your EPF consultant on one side and ESIC consultant on the other. Either way it’s one team handling registration, monthly ECR and challan filing, contribution reconciliation, contract worker coverage, inspections, and representation in 7A and 14B proceedings.
The Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 2026 was notified on 29 June 2026, replacing the 1952 scheme and bringing EPF under the Code on Social Security, 2020. EPS 2026 and EDLI 2026 came with it. Contribution rates haven’t changed and the ₹15,000 wage ceiling is where it has been since 2014. The changes are structural: filings are electronic only, and EPFO now has 20 days to settle claims.
Two other things are worth knowing about this year.
EEC, Vishwas and Amnesty 2026 let employers regularise past gaps, and they're time-bound. If you have unreported employees, wages that were under-reported, or months you know went out short, it costs less to sort out now than to be assessed on it later.
The Code on Wages puts basic plus DA at half of total remuneration, which lifts the PF base for most Indian salary structures. EPFO separately takes the view that splitting salary into allowances to keep basic low doesn't hold up. The exposure runs backwards, not just forwards.
ESIC has also stepped up digital audits, tightened registration checks, and started looking harder at whether contract workers are actually covered.
Contribution rates, wage ceilings, and the PF ESIC due dates you’re actually held to — in one place.
| EPF | ESI | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage threshold | 20 or more employees | 10 or more employees (20 in some states and establishment categories) |
| Wage ceiling | ₹15,000 per month | ₹21,000 per month; ₹25,000 for employees with disability |
| Employee contribution | 12% of basic + DA | 0.75% of wages |
| Employer contribution | 12%, split 8.33% to EPS (capped at the ceiling) and 3.67% to EPF, plus admin charges and EDLI | 3.25% of wages |
Two rules account for a disproportionate share of the errors we find.
Sit outside the ₹15,000 ceiling and contribute on full wages. If you employ any, that alone is worth a review; there’s more on it under social security compliance.
April to September, October to March. When someone’s wage crosses ₹21,000 mid-period, their ESI runs to the end of it. Stopping the deduction the month the increment lands is non-compliant — we correct it more than anything else on this list.
Whether you call it PF ESIC compliance services, EPF compliance services, or just having a PF ESI consultant on call, it comes down to the same six pieces of work.
Complete PF and ESIC registration for new establishments, including employer setup, sub-codes, amendments and portal activation. We ensure coverage dates and registration details are correctly established from the start.
✓ PF Code Registration
✓ ESIC Employer Registration
✓ Branch & Sub-code Setup
End-to-end monthly PF and ESIC compliance covering ECR filing, challan payments, contribution returns, UAN generation and KYC validation.
✓ ECR Filing & Submission
✓ PF & ESIC Challan Payment
✓ UAN & KYC Validation
Monthly reconciliation of PF and ESIC contributions with payroll and accounting records, ensuring filed, paid and recorded amounts remain accurate and aligned.
✓ Payroll Contribution Matching
✓ Challan & Return Reconciliation
✓ Books & Compliance Alignment
We monitor PF and ESIC coverage for contract workers and verify contractor challans and returns to help principal employers manage their statutory obligations.
✓ Contractor PF & ESIC Checks
✓ Challan & Return Verification
✓ Principal Employer Compliance
Support for PF and ESIC inspections, notices and proceedings, including drafting replies and representation for EPFO determinations, damages and interest matters.
✓ Inspection & Notice Support
✓ EPFO 7A Representation
✓ PF Damages & Interest Proceedings
Review salary structures against applicable wage definitions and PF requirements, helping identify potential PF and gratuity implications before payroll is processed.
✓ Wage Structure Assessment
✓ PF Applicability Review
✓ Gratuity Impact Analysis
A Section 7A notice is an inquiry into what you actually owed. It usually follows an inspection, a contractor’s default, a wage-structure review, or a complaint from an employee. Interest under 7Q and damages under 14B are assessed on top of whatever the inquiry determines, and both grow with the age of the underlying default.
How you respond first tends to shape everything after. Employers who come to us mid-inquiry have often already sent across records that weren't reconciled, which is how a question about one year becomes a question about five.
Rebuild the contribution history first, reconcile it to payroll and the books, then draft the reply and appear before the authority. You get our assessment of what's genuinely payable before any of it is filed.
The recurring ones, roughly in order of how often we see them.
01
Salary split into allowances to keep basic pay down.
02
Employees dropped from ESI at the increment rather than at the end of the contribution period.
03
Contractor workers treated as somebody else’s coverage problem.
04
A missed month paid up later with no account taken of the interest and damages already running.
05
New joiners with no Form 11.
06
A new location trading for six months before anyone generates a sub-code.
07
Filings that were made but whose acknowledgements nobody kept — in an inquiry, much the same as not having filed.
Day 1
Coverage and applicability review
Day 2
Reconcile filings, remittances and payroll
Day 3
Gap register, amnesty items flagged first
Day 4
Monthly ECR, challans and returns, on the calendar
Day 5
Track Social Security Code notifications
