Who is covered
From ESIC’s coverage page:
- Establishments. All non-seasonal factories with 10 or more persons. State governments have extended ESI to shops, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, road-motor transport, newspaper establishments, private medical and educational institutions with 10 or more persons in certain states. Where the central government is the appropriate government, it covers such establishments, plus insurance companies, NBFCs, port trusts, airports and warehousing, with 20 or more persons.
- Areas. The scheme is notified district by district: 668 districts, some fully and some partly. Check whether your location is notified.
- Employees. Those whose wages are up to ₹21,000 a month, or ₹25,000 for persons with disability. This limit has applied since 1 Jan 2017.
Rates
| Share | Rate of wages | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | 0.75% | 1 Jul 2019 |
| Employer | 3.25% | 1 Jul 2019 |
| Employee with a daily average wage up to ₹176 | Nil (employer still pays 3.25%) | — |
Source: ESIC’s contribution page.
Worked example. Shree Lakshmi Hardware pays a counter assistant ₹18,000 gross in a month.
- Employee share: ₹18,000 × 0.75% = ₹135, deducted from pay.
- Employer share: ₹18,000 × 3.25% = ₹585.
- Paid to ESIC: ₹720.
A colleague on ₹24,000 a month is above the ₹21,000 limit, so no ESI is due for them unless they have a disability, when the limit is ₹25,000.
When to pay
The employer deducts the employee share and pays both shares within 15 days of the last day of the calendar month. So October’s ESI is due by 15 November.
Contribution and benefit periods
| Contribution period | Matching cash benefit period |
|---|---|
| 1 Apr to 30 Sep | 1 Jan to 30 Jun of the next year |
| 1 Oct to 31 Mar | 1 Jul to 31 Dec |
Contributions in a period decide the cash benefits an employee can claim in the matching benefit period.
How MyRecords helps
- Works out ESI at 0.75% and 3.25% for gross pay up to ₹21,000 a month, from the month’s submitted salary slips.
- Makes the ESI upload file in the Excel 97-2003 (.xls) format the ESIC portal accepts.
- Holds the file back if someone with ESI has no ESIC IP number, and lists them.
- Shows the due date on the statutory page and the home-screen calendar.
- Uploading and paying on the ESIC portal stays with you or your CA. No client has uploaded one of these files to the live portal yet; in the pilot programme we check your first month with you.