Resolving EPF Double Payment Issue with Contractors: Refund Process and Best Practices

We have undertaken contract work with a company. The company deducted PF for our employees and deposited it to the PF account. The PF amount deducted and deposited has been debited from our contract bill, and the balance settled to us. Here the issue is, we also deducted and paid PF from the same employees.

Now the query is:

01. Is it possible to apply for a refund of money from the PF department?
02. Is there any provision to set right the excess payment from the future PF payments?
03. Is it possible to deduct the excess payment from employee & employer contributions?

These types of errors occur due to your carelessness. First of all, you must submit all the necessary documents (PF Registration Certificate copy, and the PF Remittance Details along with the Name of workmen for whom you are effecting the PF Remittance) to your employer on the first day itself, to the concerned person who is dealing with PF. If you do that, then there may not be any double payment of PF.

Once the recovered PF is remitted to RPFO through ECR or in normal mode, there is no chance of adjusting with the next month's remittance or any recovery from the Government. This has already happened to me as well.

If your employer is generous, then he can pay the excess amount paid, or some part of it, to you only from the company. But there is no provision for such double payment. However, let us wait for some more replies from our learned members.

When did this happen? Was it before the e-seva by EPF (online payment system) was started, or after that? Also, check with the company whether the EPF contributions have been paid against the names of those employees/EPF numbers or as excess payment.

Regards,
Kamal

Before entering into a contract with a contractor, you should have checked whether the contractor has obtained a PF & ESI code. If so, how will you be eligible? When preparing the contractor's bill, we have to include PF, ESI, and ST.

Once paid to the PF department by default, we cannot refund. The chances are less. You have to ask the employer to refund at least the employer's share to the contractor.

Is it possible to upload 2 ECR files for the same month and for the same reg no.? I think it is not possible. The company might have deducted the PF amount from your bill and not paid it into the PF account. First, clarify the same. If they paid, take proof of payment and approach the EPF authorities to ask for a refund or adjustment.

I agree with Sanraj Javali. That's why I asked how all this happened. Such incidents were only possible when contributions were being deposited in the bank through manually generated challans.

The EPF site will not accept two ECR files for the same month.

I suggest taking up the matter with the RPFC, providing detailed documents for future adjustment of the excess deposited amount. Involve the Principal Employer as well to assist, since it was a genuine mistake.

Regards,
Chandok A K
RPFC (Retd.)
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I think what happened is this: The company assumed that the contractor does not have a PF code and paid the PF of the contractor under their own name. Meanwhile, the contractor paid it under their own name. Since the PF codes and account numbers would be different, the system will accept it. The way I see it, the fault lies with the client company, and they should fully refund the money to the contractor. However, companies being as they are, I doubt if that will happen.

Dear Saswat,

Whatever you said is the same thing that happened with them. As a matter of fact, whoever comes newly as a contractor, the employer will ask for the Service Tax Registration Certificate, PF & ESI Registration Certificate copies, and on completion of the month, the contractor has to submit the Wages sheet and Muster roll and after remitting the PF & ESI challan after remitting the amount to concerned authorities. Here the lapse may probably have taken place on both sides. If the contractor could have submitted the ESI & PF Registration certificate, then the lapse would not take place. Blaming the employer is not the correct way without knowing the fact.

Right!

I made assumptions I can't verify. It's probably bias of seeing how companies work (I head the legal compliance audit team of Progress Partners). I will wait for the original poster to provide us further details.

As best practice (for the knowledge of all of us to add), the company should ask for details of PF registration from the contractor. They should make it clear that copies need to be provided of the challan. Most of our clients follow a practice of holding back payment of next month if the challans are not produced.

Payment under own code is to be made only if there is no possibility of the contractor paying on his own. Paying PF of contract workers in own code is a bad practice in any case, even if allowed. In fact, companies today have stopped taking contractors who do not have PF ESIC registration.

The point I was trying to make is that even if the company is at fault for not checking things, they will not refund the amount. They will go out of the way to protect their backside.

Please clarify the EPF deposit in various accounts like AC No: 1, 10, 2, 21, 22 for an un-exempted establishment and for a trust. Clarify separately for both.

Mr. Dheeraj,

It is not possible to upload 2 ECRs for the same month under the same Registration number. If you wish to upload a second ECR, you must first submit a request for rejection of the earlier ECR through Employer e-Sewa. Following this, you can proceed with uploading the second ECR.

If there is a way to upload the 2nd ECR without following the above procedure, please provide the steps.

Regards,
Santosh Javali

Mr. Dheeraj,

It is not possible to upload 2 ECRs for the same month under the same Registration number. If you wish to upload a second ECR, you must first submit a request for rejection of the earlier ECR through www.esewa.epfoservices.in. After this process, you can proceed to upload the second ECR.

If there is a way to upload the 2nd ECR without following the above procedure, kindly inform me of the steps.

Regards,
Santosh Javali

Hello Hridranath,

Mistakes will make humans perfect, so don't worry about your mistake. It happens to everyone, even in higher positions.

Now, urgently contact your Accounts officer of PF and the EDP section in PF with all necessary documents. Please collect all the receiving copies from the PF office for the same. You will get your refund back; just follow the procedure of your PF ACCOUNTS OFFICER in this matter.

Thanking you,

Regards,
Ashish

1. Is it possible to upload 2 or 3 ECR files for the same month and for one establishment, but for different sites with varying employees.

2.

Steps to Get a Refund for EPF Double Payment

To get a refund of the EPF double payment, you can follow these steps. The error occurred due to our establishment's practice of depositing EPF in two installments, as our bank has a transaction limit of Rs. 2 lakhs per day. In the recent transaction, one installment was Rs. 1.2 lakhs, and the other was Rs. 1.4 lakhs. We made the payment of Rs. 1.2 lakhs on 15th Aug. However, the next day, we mistakenly uploaded the same challan for Rs. 1.2 lakhs instead of Rs. 1.4 lakhs and paid the amount. Despite generating different TRRNs for each payment, the bank accepted the online payment. Upon realizing the error, we contacted the EPF office. However, given our past experience of emails being unanswered, we are uncertain if they will respond to this issue. How can we effectively resolve this matter?

We have wrongly paid one month twice. We have two paid challans with two different TRRN numbers.

NOW WHAT TO DO....