1. What is ESI?

Employees' State Insurance (a.k.a ESI) is a fund which is managed by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and is regulated by the ESI Act, 1948.

2. ESIC Benefits

The ESI benefits include medical, maternity, disability and dependent benefits to the employees insured under the ESI Act. The scheme provides full medical care to the employee registered under the ESI Act, 1948 during the period of his incapacity, restoration of his health and working capacity. It provides financial assistance to compensate for the loss of wages during the period of his abstention from work due to sickness, maternity and employment injury and during the hospitalization in any ESI hospital

3. Applicability of ESIC

The ESI scheme is applicable to all establishments defined in the ESI Act,1948 with 10 or more persons employed in such establishment whose monthly wage does not exceed Rs 21,000(w.e.f 01.01.2017) are covered under the scheme. For the employees registered under these employers also ESI is applicable irrespective of the salary

4. Calculation

The funds under the ESI scheme are primarily built out of the contribution from the employees and employers payable monthly at a fixed percentage of wages paid. Previously, the employee contribution rate is 1.00% of the wages and that of employers is 4.00% of the wages paid. The contribution rate was revised from July 1st, 2019, the ESI contribution rate for FY 2019-20 stands at 4% which includes the employer contribution of 3.25 per cent and the employee’s contribution of 0.75 per cent

	Previous rate	Rate Since 1st July 2019
Employee Contribution	1%	0.75%
Employer Contribution	4%	3.25%

5. Due Date

The Employer is liable to deposit the ESI contribution along with the amount deducted to the ESIC within 15 days from the last day of the calendar month

5. Extension of Due Date

The Director general OF ESIC Vide: notice number P-11/14/Misc./1/2019-Rev on Monday gave the relaxation for filling and payment due to COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
“Keeping in view the pandemic in the form of “Corona virus” (COVID-19) in the country, the Director General has relaxed the provision as entered in regulations 26 & 31 of ‘The Employees’ State Insurance (General) Regulations, 1950′. The proviso of regulation 31 shall be read as 45 days instead of 15 days for the contribution payable for the month of February & March 2020 only" mentioned in the notification.

"The ESI contribution for the month of February 2020 & March 2020 can be filed & paid, up to 15th April 2020 & 15th May 2020 instead of 15th March 2020 & 15th April,2020 respectively".

Disclaimer:“The information contained herein is only for informational purpose and should not be considered for any particular instance or individual or entity. We have obtained information from publicly available sources, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or it will continue to be accurate in future. No one should act on such information without obtaining professional advice after thorough examination of particular situation.”