Government Contracts and Employee Benefits: Who Should Cover PF, ESI, and PT?

I am a service/manpower provider company in Maharashtra. I have entered a government tender seeking to provide security services. The rate for each guard was to be calculated as per the Minimum Wages Act. I included all the allowances required by the latest Minimum Wages Act of December 2022, such as PF, ESI, PT, HRA, bonus, washing allowance, etc. However, the government organization rejected my bid in the financial proposal, stating that I had asked for the employees' share of PF, ESI, and PT, which they are not liable to pay.

Question on Principal Employer's Responsibility

My question pertains to the government organization being the principal employer in this case and myself as the contractor. Shouldn't the organization be responsible for paying the employees' allowances since they are providing services on a contractual basis for them?

I have appealed to the higher authority regarding this issue. Please assist me with this query.

Showing the employer's contributions is a system followed in private organizations and not in government. For us, everything that we spend for the employees is a cost to the company and there are no benefits, in fact! What you have to do while submitting the tenders is to show the wages payable in gross and your service charges, which shall include the contributions payable by you without bifurcating it as employer's contributions and service charges.

If you are going to higher authorities, you can submit that these are employer's contributions to various statutory funds. Sometimes, it will benefit you.

I am a bit confused as to why you are asking for the employees' portion of PF, ESI, PT, etc., from the PE. The PE is responsible for compliance with the minimum wages, along with the employer's portion of PF and ESI. The employees' portion of PF, ESI, and PT should be deducted from the employees' wages and not paid by the PE.

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The apprehension of the government authority should be that when the employer's share is a cost to the employer, why is it shown separately, or is it deducted from the employee's salaries? They ask the same question when they see the appointment order of a private employee because their pay package will not contain such costs met by the government.