Is a Separate PF Registration Needed for Our Jammu & Kashmir Branches? Seeking Advice

jisjames009
Hi, Our company (NBFC) has branches in Jammu & Kashmir areas. We are covering all of our employees under the Employee Provident Fund and remitting contributions centrally. An Enforcement Officer visited our branches and instructed us to apply for a separate Establishment code in the Jammu & Kashmir area branches. Is it necessary to open a separate PF registration in Jammu & Kashmir?

Regards, Jis
Rahul Kumar
While it does not expressly specify that you have to seek a separate establishment code for PF in any state, it is, however, the normal practice. In a manner of speaking, you need to take a separate establishment code for PF in a state where you run a business. That is why state-level RPFCs have been created. The Enforcement Officer is right in his advice to your organization.

Many organizations, however, request and receive remittance to a 'central' establishment code for the simple reasons of administrative convenience of the organization and its business(es) or due to some specified state limitations. A plausible reason or argument has to be furnished by your organization to the CPFC with a copy to the RPFC in writing, based on which the Central PF Commissioner may consider your request or may reject it for want of sufficient reason. Due consideration is also given to the fact of whether your organization has branches/business units (SBUs) or sister companies and whether their balance sheets are common/linked/independent.

The choice is yours either to comply with applying for and getting an establishment code in J&K or write to the PF Commissioner to request a central remittance based on a single code.

Hope this clarifies.

Regards,
Rahul
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