The Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 was formulated to provide social security in the form of provident fund, pension and insurance to all employees who are employed on wages.
The Employees Provident Fund Organization vide Notification No. CAIU/011(33)2015/HQ/Vol.II/28445 dated 2nd February 2017, states that a Principal Employer should ensure that the contractor is registered with the Employees' Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) before awarding any Contract. Upon award of the contract, the contractor's details should be entered in the EPFO portal. Payments due to the contractor should be made only after verifying that the statutory provident fund (PF) payments have been made to the EPFO. This may be verified either directly from the EPFO portal or upon the insistence of a payment receipt obtained by the contractor from the EPFO portal while making payment. If the contractors have a separate PF Code, the overall responsibility of ensuring compliance under the abovementioned Act rests on the Principal Employer. The Principal Employer may also deduct employees' provident fund dues from the contractors' bill and deposit the same either against the contractors' code number or their own code number.
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