Bonus Payment - Salary Payment

Dear All
Kindly advise me on the below:
We have been following the below structure in our company for salary disbursement: Basic(65%)+ Conv(15%)+ HRA(20%)
We have been paying bonus of 19.25% on Basic(65% of gross). We have also fixed the ceiling for employees drawing salary of Rs. 15000 and above are not eligible for bonus.
Now we are wanting to restructure our salary component in the following manner: Basic(85%)+ HRA(15%)
For payment of bonus: if we go ahead and restructure the salary components can we still calculate and pay bonus of 19.25% on 65% of the gross salary or should we revise our bonus to 19.25% of basic.
Your advise and inputs will be of great help. Please advise.
Regards
K Lakshme devi

As per the bonus act 1965

Eligibility for :- Sec 8 Every employee shall be entitled to be paid by his employer in an accounting year, bonus, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, provided he has worked in the establishment for not less than thirty working days in that year.

payment of minimum bonus :- sec 10 Subject to the other provisions of this Act, every employer shall be bound to pay to every employee in respect of the accounting year commencing on any day in the year 1979 and in respect of every subsequent accounting year, a minimum bonus which shall be 8.33 per cent of the salary or wage earned by the employee during the accounting year or one hundred rupees, whichever is higher, whether or not the employer has any allocable surplus in the accounting year :

Provided that where an employee has not completed fifteen years of age at the beginning of the accounting year, the provisions of this section shall have effect in relation to such employee as if for the words "one hundred rupees", the words "sixty rupees" were substituted.

calculation of bonus : sec 12

Where the salary or wage of an employee exceeds two thousand and five hundred rupees per mensem, the bonus payable to such employee under Section 10 or, as the case may be, under Section 11, shall be calculated as if his salary or wage were two thousand and five hundred rupees per mensem.

If any problem then call me

As rightly said by Abhijit Barua you are bound to give minimum 8.33 % of bonus on wages. If the employees earn salary of more than Rs2,500/- then salary for calculating bonus is to be taken as Rs2500/- only.
For the information of the juniors the employer who engages more than 20 employees are only entitled to pay bonus as per Law.

Dear All
Thanks for the response. As I understand from your responses above, we will go ahead and restructure the salary components, but still continue the way in which we process the bonus, as we are paying employees more than the law. I hope we will not get into any legal litigation because of this.
Regards
K Lakshme Devi

Yes. No legal litigation because of this since you are paying more than what the law is intended. Go head with your good work

Dear All
The maximum salary or wage that could be reckoned for the purpose of calculating bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act is Rs.3500/- per month and not Rs.2500/- per month as stated in the earlier posts. This amendment to section 12 of the Payment of Bonus Act was made by Act 45 of 2007 with effect from 1-4-2006.
With regards

Dear Basima,
Mr. hari krishan is rightly said now as per the bonus act bonus calculation should be calculate on Rs. 3500/-, if ur basic amount should be > then 3500/- or if ur basic amount rs. < then 3500/- then banus should be calculate on actual on ur basic amount.

Dear Mehrunisa Basima
You can access the amendment in the website of the Union Ministry of Labour Government of India
Regards