Confused About Provident Fund Registration for My Small Call Center – Need Advice on Costs and Requirements

I am running a small call center with 30 employees, and the average CTC is Rs. 11,000. My company is registered as a Private Limited (Pvt. Ltd.). I want to register in the Provident Fund scheme; however, my Chartered Accountant (CA) is discouraging me and wants me to show a maximum of 7 employees. He even told me that it costs about 50k to get the Employer Registration Code. I am really confused as I want to provide benefits to the employees of the company, but it should not cost as much as this amount. Please help me with what the minimum number of employees required for PF registration is, and also how much it actually costs to register? Is PF calculated on the Gross salary or the Net salary or only on the basic? Looking forward to a helpful reply from the members. Thank you in advance.

Hi,

The minimum number for PF registration is 20 employees. The PF is calculated on the Basic+DA. The employer registration code is not a huge amount as you said. There is no registration fee, and only some documentation work needs to be completed. Where is your location? I am from Cochin, Kerala.

Regards,
REJI

Importance of Timely PF Contributions

It is better to pay PF contributions as soon as possible. Any further delay in compliance will attract significant interest, and you will need to pay old contributions since your employee strength crossed 19. Both shares of contribution (employers and employees) may have to be paid since you cannot recover it from employees who have left.

I would advise you to start paying PF contributions, as you are legally obliged to. Always remember: "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

EPF Registration and Contributions

If you experience a delay, you will need to pay both employee and employer contributions with a penalty as per the EPF Act. Furthermore, EPF department officers may not release you until the contributions from the date of establishment are paid. Therefore, it is advisable to obtain the EPF code as soon as possible.

Obtaining the EPF code does not require a significant amount to be spent. You can now generate the code online from your desktop.

Thank you.

For more information, please contact me via email.

Regards, Ganessh.B

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