Is it mandatory to deduct PF if employee’s salary has been kept on hold . For eg, Mr. A is on a notice Period of 30 days for July month but left the organization within 7 days and therefore management decided to keep his July salary on hold. So in this case is it compulsory for an employer to deduct PF even if his FNF is done in the next month.
Statutory compliance should be followed as per Act due dates . It is mandate to pay all statuory dues that is applicable for employees working day though FNF is in next month.
Even if the salary of an employee is on hold for settlement , it is recommended to pay the P.F dues (both employer’s and employee’s) within the due date of the specific wage month. This would imply that the company will be remitting employee’s contribution in advance before the actual recovery is made. But it helps avoid penalties (damages & interest) imposed by the P.F authorities at a later stage. Not serving the notice period will not be accepted as a reason for delayed remittance.
Hello everyone, What would be the steps wrt EPF if the F&F is not to be paid (like in case of Abscond employees). EPF will have to be paid in such a case even if the salary will not be paid?
Salary becomes payable for the days he worked in the month even if the resigned employee does not serve the notice period. Statutory contributions are deductible from the salary earned and to be remitted within due dates. Only the net salary is kept on hold for any recovery to be made from the employee like advance, Income Tax etc.
If employee is not covered under EPF, PF deduction itself is not coming in the picture. Obviously then organization is not supposed to hold payment for EFP at the time of Full and final settlement. However make sure that PF exemption is given after checking all relevant clauses and otherwise it can be considered as non-compliance