Revolutions in HR India 2012 - EPF Challans

The year 2012 is ending soon and I’m pretty sure, all of us are prepared to welcome the New Year, 2013. Before we welcome the fresh year, let’s look back and enjoy the flashbacks of 2012 and analyze the happenings so as to get ready for 2013.

A lot of ups and downs were seen this very year. Politics in India was probably the hottest topic, Bollywood star’s demise being the next. Not to forget the London Olympics, and Arvind Kejriwal’s fight against corruption campaign. On a light note, I would also count PSY’s Gangnam Style as one of the hottest trends this year.

Moving further to the Human Resources News in 2012, we read about the improved position of women in the industry, decrease in salaries in banking sector, differentiated strategies of hiring in Microsoft and Google and much other. Here, I’m going to discuss one of the biggest revolutions made in the EPF Sector that simplified filing of EPF Challans and saved employers from errors that used to occur due to conventional paper work methods.

With effect from April 2012, EPFO Launched online receipt of Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR). Any remittance to be made by the employer was to be done only after generating Challan from the Employer Portal of EPFO. Though every organization’s Challans are filed this way now, a lot of employers who leave this headache on other companies might not still be aware of this new system.

For those who still don’t know the process, I’m explaining below all the steps required to file Challans online through the EPF portal and those who know the procedures already can review if they are doing everything correct.

PROCESS FLOW OF ECR

Preconditions:

1. The employer has registered his/her establishment on the employer e-sewa portal.

2. The employer has downloaded the ECR file format and prepared the ECR text file. (For details click here)

So, how do we file monthly Challans through EPF Portal? 

1. Login to the employer e-sewa portal here.

2. After login, you’ll see the following screen

3. Click on the ECR at the top Menu Bar. You will find the various options. Click ECR UPLOAD. 

Following screen will appear.

4. Select the text file you have to upload from the location where you have saved it. Check the Wage Month and year for which you are going to upload the ECR. Select the correct WAGE MONTH/YEAR and click SUBMIT button.

5. If your text file has been prepared correctly, the Summary sheet as follows will appear.

6. Enter the additional details regarding EDLI and EPF/EDLI Administrative and Inspection charges. Check the Contribution rate also. By default it is 12%. If applicable for your establishment, you can change it to 10%. Click SUBMIT ECR button.

7. An alert will appear to confirm the Contribution rate. Click OK and again click SUBMIT ECR button.

8. A digitally signed PDF file with date and time of upload will appear on the screen.  

Note: In case the number of members in the ECR file is more than 200, please wait till you get an SMS alert to view/download the digitally signed PDF file.  

Click on the PDF FILE icon to download the file and verify the data with the data of the ECR text file uploaded by you.

Note: The PDF file that is displayed is digitally signed by EPFO for security purpose and no signature is required.

This step is also available at the following link (ECR PENDING FOR APPROVAL)

9. The digitally signed PDF will look like the following screen.

10. After you have satisfied yourself with the correctness of the data, click APPROVE button. An alert will come on Approval. Click OK.

11. On approval of the ECR file, a Temporary Return Reference Number (TRRN) for the uploaded ECR file will be generated and the next screen that will appear will display the Challan and Acknowledgement slip for uploaded file. 

Click CHALLAN RECEIPT File for downloading and printing the Challan. 

This step is also available at the following link (REQUEST ECR REJECTION)

12. The Challan will look as follows: After Printing, manually fill in the details under “For establishment use only”.

13. The ECR Acknowledge slip will be as follows. 

The challan generated on approval of ECR will lapse after 15 days if remittance is not made. 

Till this stage the employer can request for rejection of the approved ECR. However if remittance is made against the ECR, it cannot be rejected.

14. For Remittance there are two options:

a. If the employer is a CINB (Corporate Internet Banking) customer of SBI, then he/she can make online payment through the online SBI portal of SBI.

b. Otherwise the remittance can be made through demand draft/local cheque in any designated branch of SBI.

15. Once the cheque against the Challan is realized, you will get SMS alert. With this the ECR filing process for the month will be complete.

Should you have any queries regarding the above process, please let us know. You can also share your feedback with us. We’d continue with other remarkable events in HR Industry this Friday.