Worried About Penalties for Mistakes in ECR Filing? Here's What You Need to Know

I have filed the ECR of my firm by putting 0 against the columns for the number of excluded employees and the gross wages of excluded employees, as I did not understand these terms correctly. Now, I have read that the number and wages of employees earning more than 15,000 per month should be filled in those columns.

I wanted to ask whether there would be any penalty on my firm from the EPFO department if the mistake is found, and if yes, how much.

I understand the ECR, once filed, cannot be revised.

Kindly help.

Non-declaration of Exempted Employees' Salary and Wages in ECR

Non-declaration of exempted employees' salary and their wages in the ECR will invite questions at the time of an EPF inspection. During the inspection, EPF authorities are authorized to ask for your company's balance sheet. Suppose in the balance sheet your company booked an "X" amount under the name of wages. In this "X" amount, amount "A" is exempted employees' wages, and amount "B" is non-exempted employees' wages. You deposited EPF on amount "B" without declaration regarding amount "A".

In the above situation, it's not inviting any direct penalty, but during the inspection, EPF authorities will charge you for amount "A".