Wednesday 18 May 2011


The Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 applies to an establishment, employing 20 or more persons and engaged in any of the 183 Industries and Classes of business establishments, throughout India excluding the State of Jammu and Kashmir. 

The applicant fills in an application and is then allotted a social security number. The Provident Fund registration focuses on delinquent reporting, underreporting, or non-reporting of workforce size. Provident Fund registration is optional if workforce size is not more than 20.

The employer is required to provide necessary information to the concerned regional Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) in prescribed manner for allotment of Establishment Code Number. No separate registration is required for the employees. Nevertheless all eligible employees are required to become members of the Fund and individual account number is allotted by the employer in prescribed manner. 

As per an internal circular, the code number is to be allotted within 3 days from the date of submission, if the application is complete in all respects. However, in many cases applicants have received the intimation letter with the code number in 12 to 15 days. An online application facility is not provided so far.