On 29 June 2026 the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme 2026, the Employees’ Pension Scheme 2026 and the EDLI Scheme 2026 were notified, replacing the 1952, 1995 and 1976 schemes (eGazette, G.S.R. 525(E) and 526(E); EPS 2026 text).
Five weeks later, most payroll teams have changed nothing, largely because the headline number everyone checks did not move. That is the trap. The rate is the same. Almost everything around it is different.
First, the myth: the ceiling did not go to ₹21,000
The provident fund wage ceiling remains ₹15,000 a month. It was re-notified afresh under section 2(89) of the Code on Social Security by S.O. 2702(E) dated 29 May 2026 (labour.gov.in). It has stood at ₹15,000 since 1 September 2014 (EPFO’s ceiling history).
If your salary-structure planning for this financial year assumed ₹21,000 or ₹25,000, unwind it.
What actually changed
Contributions above the ceiling are now expressly voluntary. Mandatory 12% plus 12% continues, but only up to ₹15,000 — that is ₹1,800 a month from each side. Above that, either the employee or the employer may reduce or discontinue contributions, and employer matching above the ceiling is optional unless you have contractually promised it.
This is a bigger deal than it sounds. Any employee on a salary above ₹15,000 whose PF is currently computed on full basic can now ask you to stop. You need a documented consent and change-request process before the first such request arrives, not after.
The contribution base is “wages” under the Code, including the 50% deeming rule — not “basic wages” as you have historically read it. Under the new definition, effective 21 November 2025, only statutory components (employer PF, employer pension contribution and statutory bonus) count towards the 50% test; gratuity and ESI do not; annual performance incentives are excluded; and overtime allowance is included (Labour Ministry FAQs, 16 March 2026). Where excluded components exceed 50% of total remuneration, the excess is added back to wages.
Statutory and voluntary contributions must be separately identifiable in your remittances and in the new consolidated Form V return, filed within 15 days. If your payroll writes a single PF figure per employee, that is now a data-model problem, not a formatting one.
The numbers that did not change
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Employee and employer contribution | 12% each |
| Employer split | 8.33% to EPS, 3.67% to EPF |
| EDLI | 0.5% |
| Administrative charges | 0.5% |
| Coverage threshold | 20 or more employees |
| ECR and contribution due date | 15th of the following month |
| Interest on delayed remittance | 12% per annum, simple, under section 7Q |
Sources: EPFO contribution rates and the Labour Ministry’s Compliance Handbook for Employers.
EPS remittance mechanics were separately notified on 1 July 2026: 8.33% up to the notified ceiling, remitted within 15 days of the close of every month, with 9.49% applying for joint-option members on wages above ₹15,000 (S.O. 3580(E)).
VISHWAS 2026 closes in late December, and it is worth real money
If you have PF defaults from before 14 June 2024 sitting on your books, this is the paragraph that matters most.
VISHWAS 2026 was notified as part of the EPF Scheme 2026 and took effect on 29 June 2026, running for six months. It recalculates damages under section 14B / section 128 at (PIB, 29 July 2026):
- 0.25% per month for defaults up to two months
- 0.50% per month for defaults over two and under four months
- 1.00% per month for defaults of four months or more
… against a standard rate of up to 25% per annum. The mandatory condition is full remittance of section 7Q and section 127 interest. Damages already fully recovered, and fraud or misappropriation cases, are excluded.
Alongside it, AMNESTY 2026 offers one-time regularisation for establishments running PF trusts recognised under income tax law but without a formal section 17 exemption notification.
Six months from 29 June means the window closes at the end of December 2026. Reconciling a legacy default takes weeks, not days. If there is anything unresolved in your PF history, start the reconciliation this month.
Two adjacent changes that affect the same payroll run
Employee PF and ESI deductions are no longer lost to a one-day delay. From 1 April 2026 the deduction due date for employee PF and ESI contributions is aligned with the employer’s income-tax return filing due date, instead of the 15-day fund-law date (CBDT Budget 2026 FAQs). This reverses a long-standing trap where a single day’s delay in depositing the employee share meant permanent disallowance. It is a genuine relief and almost nobody has written about it.
ESI coverage may quietly expand. ESIC’s clarification letter of 4 June 2026 confirms the ₹21,000 threshold continues, but warns that certain allowances counted under the old 1948 Act definition are omitted from the new definition — which can pull employees you had excluded on gross-wage grounds back into coverage. Re-run your ESI eligibility test against the new wage definition before the next contribution period.
Your checklist before the next ECR
- Confirm the PF wage base in your payroll is computed on Code wages with the 50% rule, not legacy basic.
- Split statutory and voluntary contributions into separate fields so Form V can be filed correctly.
- Build a consent and change-request flow for employees who want to stop above-ceiling contributions.
- Re-test ESI eligibility for every employee near the ₹21,000 line under the new wage definition.
- Pull your PF default history for anything before 14 June 2024 and evaluate VISHWAS 2026 now.
- Verify UAN and Aadhaar authentication status — Aadhaar authentication under section 142 of the Code has been clarified as mandatory and self-executory, and PM-VBRY incentives are released only after face-authenticated UAN (PIB).
- Keep the 15th-of-month ECR discipline. Nothing in the new scheme relaxes it.
Most of this is configuration work, and configuration work is where spreadsheet-driven payroll quietly fails. IntelloHRM computes the PF base on the current wage definition, keeps statutory and voluntary contributions separately identifiable, and flags ESI-eligibility changes before the contribution period closes rather than after.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your PF wage base before the next ECR, send us a sample salary structure and we will map it against the 2026 scheme.
Published 4 August 2026. Verified against eGazette, labour.gov.in, epfindia.gov.in, esic.gov.in and incometaxindia.gov.in on that date.