INTRODUCTION

ELECTRONIC CHALLAN CUM RETURN VERSION II

The ECR was launched in April 2012 making the online filing of the returns mandatory for the
employers. The said version of the ECR was with 25 data fields and it attempted the consolidation of
the monthly returns in Form 5/10/12A and the annual returns in Form 3A.

With the launch of the UAN based member identification and its becoming stable the services directly
to the members started becoming possible as the linking of KYC started.

To make the ECR UAN based and simple, the following changes are being made:

Sl Data Field in ECR I Sl No Data field in ECR II Remarks

No
1 Member ID Discarded
1 UAN Added
2 Name 2 Name
3 Gross Wages New field added
3 EPF Wages 4 EPF Wages
4 EPS Wages 5 EPS Wages
6 EDLI Wages New field added
5 EE Share Due Discarded
6 EE Share Remitted 7 EE Share Remitted
7 EPS Contribution Due Discarded
8 EPS Contribution 8 EPS Contribution
Remitted Remitted
9 ER Share Due Discarded
10 ER Share Remitted 9 ER Share Remitted
11 NCP Days 10 NCP Days
12 Refunds 11 Refunds
13 Arrear wages Discarded. Part of Separate
Arrear ECR file
14 Arrear EE Share Do
15 Arrears ER Share Do
16 Arrear EPS Do
Contribution
17 Fathers Name Discarded here.
Required at the time of UAN
allotment
18 Relationship Do
19 Date of Birth Do
20 Gender Do
21 Date of Joining EPF Do
22 Date of Joining EPS Do
23 Date of Exit EPF Discarded here
To be updated when required
before or after filing the ECR
24 Date of Exit EPS Do
25 Reason for Leaving Do
File format of ECR Version II with field validations.
Sl Data field in Validations Remarks
No ECR II
1 UAN Should be a valid UAN and Mere uploading with a valid UAN will not do.
linked with the The system will check if the said UAN is linked
establishment code. and also if the date of joining and date of exit
are before and after the wage month,
respectively. See examples below
2 Name The uploaded name will be for display only.
The remittance will go against the UAN with
whatever name is there in the UAN
Repository.
3 Gross The gross wages means the total
Wages emoluments for the month
4 EPF Wages Number Wages on which the employer is supposed to
No decimals allowed. remit the dues.
EPF wages cannot be more (If the employer is restricting the dues on
than the Gross wages. wage ceiling of 15000 and the employee is
Note: The Exempted contributing on his full wages above 15000/-
Establishments under EPF then 15000 should be shown as EPF wages.
Scheme should also fill in the In case the employer is paying his dues on
EPF Wages. above wage ceiling, that wage should be
0 wages can be allowed entered.
only in case the employee
did not earn any wage during
the month.
5 EPS Wages Number The present wage ceiling is 15000/-.
No decimals allowed.
EPS wages cannot be more
than EPF wages.
It can be less if the EPF wages
are above 15000/-. In such
case it should be 15000/-.
It can be 0 if the member is
not a member of EPS (due to
age above superannuation,
or a new member after
01.09.2014 with wages
above wage ceiling).
6 EDLI Wages Number Cannot be more than 15000.00
No decimals allowed.
The EDLI wages should be
equal to EPF wages but
maximum 15000/-.
It cannot be less than EPF
wages if the EPF wages are
less than 15000/-.
It can be 0 if the
establishment is exempted
 under EDLI, and in case the
member is individually
exempted.
7 EE Share Number
Remitted No decimals allowed.
Cannot be more than the
gross wages.
8 EPS Number
Contribution No decimals allowed.
Remitted Cannot be more than
rounded 8.33% of the EPS
Wages, and in case the EPS
wages is above 15000/- then
maximum 8.33% of the EPS
wages added with 1.16% of
the wages above 15000/- .
9 ER Share Number
Remitted No decimals allowed.
10 NCP Days Number In case the wages declared is 0, due to reason
No decimals allowed. that the member did not earn wages, the
NCP should be equal to the number of days
of the month.
Half day NCP is not permitted. It has to be in
number of full days
11 Refunds Number
No decimals allowed.

File format of the ARREAR ECR File.

Sl no Data field name Validations
1 UAN Should be a valid UAN and linked with the establishment
code. A member even with date of exit is allowed.
2 Name The uploaded name will be for display only. The remittance
will go against the UAN with whatever name is there in the
UAN Repository.
3 Arrear EPF Wages Number only, no decimals
4 Arrear EPS Wages Number only, no decimals
5 Arrear EDLI Wages Number only, no decimals
6 Employee share EPF Number only, no decimals
7 Employer Share EPF Number only, no decimals
8 Pension Fund Contribution Number only, no decimals
The ECR II thus will have following parts:

1. The member identifier fields: UAN and name

2. The return part comprising of the five fields namely the Gross wages, EPF Wages, EPS Wages,
EDLI wages and NCP days
3. The remittance part: The employee share PF, pension contribution and Employer share PF.

Process flow of the ECR Version II

(Process with Screen shots separately displayed)
After login the employer will get the link for Payments in the menu bar.

Under payments he will have the following links at present:

a. ECR Upload
b. Direct Challan Entry
c. View Challans

The link ECR Upload allows to upload both the regular monthly return and the arrear ECR file.

The process is in the following five steps:

Upload
Verify
Prepare Challan
Finalise Challan
Pay
The process from upload till payment is as follows:

I. UPLOAD

The following information will be required at the time of uploading the ECR/Arrear file:

Wage month: For selecting the wage month and year against which the file is to be uploaded.
Date of disbursement:
The file that has to be uploaded can be selected then.
File type: Select ECR for the Regular Monthly file and Arrear for the Arrear payments.
Contribution rate: By default it will be 12%. If this is changed to 10% additional information
has to be selected from the following:
Bidi
Brick
Coir
Jute
Guar Gum
Less than 20 employees
Sick Establishment permitted by EPFO Office
 Remarks: This is for the help of the employers who are paying through multiple ECR for same
month. Here they can add remarks to identify the particular ECR.

II. VERIFY ECR STATEMENT

Once the data is uploaded, the software will validate for the file for the format and the other
validations and if the validation fails, the error file will be created and the employer can then download
the file, check error, rectify them and again upload the file.

In case the validations are successful, the ECR Statement file in PDF will be generated and the
employer can download the same and after verifying the data can verify the same. He can also reject
the file and again upload the correct file.

The PDF will display the name as uploaded in the ECR and also the name as per the UAN Repository.
In case the name is wrong the employer should get the same changed through the process explained
on the epfindia website. The remitted amount will be credited against the UAN even if the name
differs.

The PDF will also display the benefit amount under the PMRPY and PMPRPY Schemes
against the eligible employees and the benefit amount will not be added against the Challan amount
to be paid. The payment of the benefit amount in the members account will be directly from the
Government of India Fund.

III. PREPARE CHALLAN

Once the ECR Statement has been verified, the said ECR will appear for preparation of the
challan under the header In Process ECRs.

The employer still has the option to cancel the approved ECR Statement through the Cancel
Button against the In Process ECRS.

On click of the Prepare Challan, the Summary Sheet will open and the summary data based
on the uploaded ECR will be displayed.

Following additional data will have to be entered:

Total EDLI Contribution: The calculated data will be displayed but the employer can edit
the same.
Total EPF Charges (A/c 2): There will be data fields for Administration and Inspection. In
case the establishment is exempted under the EPF Scheme employer should enter against
the Inspection (for the Inspection charges) and if the establishment is not exempted then
he should enter the administrative charges against the Administration.
Total EDLI Charges: (A/c 22): There will be data fields for Administration and Inspection.
In case the establishment is exempted under the EDLI Scheme employer should enter
against the Inspection (for the Inspection charges) and if the establishment is not
exempted then he should enter the administrative charges against the Administration.
Total number of Employees during the month:
Number of Excluded Employees:
Gross wages of Excluded Employees:

After entry of the data the employer can click the Generate Challan.
 IV. FINALISE CHALLAN
Once the challan is generated the same will be listed under the Draft Challan List where the
employer can still edit the challan.
Edit of the generated challan means that the employer can only edit the data in the 6 fields
that were entered by him while preparing the challan.
If the ECR data is to be changed the employer will have to upload another ECR file with the
correct data.
If the data is correct the employer can finalise the challan.
Once finalised the Challan will be listed for the online payment and a link for the PAY will
appear under the head In-process challan list.
The challan can be printed for record purpose as the payment has to be made online only.
The challan will show the amount to be paid by the employer account wise and the benefit
amount under the PMRPY and PMPRPY Schemes will be that are not to be paid by the
employer will be shown separately.

V. PAY CHALLAN
The pay link will allow the employer to select the Bank through which he wants to pay.
Online payment is mandatory vide the notification dated 05.05.2015.
Offline payment is possible only in case the permission has been taken from the
concerned PF Office.

IMPORTANT
Help files will be available for the following:

Previous month Uploaded ECR txt file so that the employer can use the same in case there is
less or no change and does not require to prepare ECR file again.

Download of the Blank ECR file with the UANs and name so that the UAN is not required to be
punched in for preparation of the ECR file. This will also be available for the Arrear file.

The ECR format along with the additional data in the summary sheet will show that the ECR is
having mainly three parts, namely Member Identifier, the Return and the Remittance details as
follows:

Member Identifier:

UAN: (The UAN should be linked with the establishment id and should not have :
Date of joining later than the month for which the return is filed.
Date of exit earlier than the month for which the return is filed.

Name: Name even if differs from the name as per UAN Repository, then also the remittances
made will be credited against the UAN.

Return Part:

For each employee:

Gross Wages
EPF Wages
 EPS Wages
EDLI Wages
NCP
For the establishment as a whole: (in the summary sheet

Number of employees in the month

Number of Excluded Employees out of above
Gross wages of the excluded employees.

Note: If the employer is paying the dues for any employee for the same month through more than
one ECR (due to reasons such as part payment), he should declare the correct wages and NCP in all
the files and part wages should not be shown.

Similarly the employers uploading more than one ECR for a month should declare the same
employee and excluded count etc in the multiple ECRs.

In case of Arrear file the details of the employee, excluded employee and gross wages will not be
asked.

Remittance Part

For each employees;

Employee share EPF

Pension Fund Contribution
Employer Share EPF
Refund of Advances
For the establishment as a whole:

EDLI Contribution
EPF Charges in A/c 2 (Administration and Inspection)
EDLI Charges in A/c 22 (Administration and Inspection)