WHAT IS ESIC?

ESIC stands for Employee State Insurance Corporation which is a Statutory Corporate Body set up for administration and regulation of the Employee State Insurance Scheme. This regulatory body is established and governed under the Employee State Insurance Act, 1948. ESI scheme is a social security scheme which is for protecting employees against any financial distress arising out of sickness, disability, injury or death. ESIC has it's headquartered in Delhi along with 23 regional offices and 26 sub-regional offices established for governing the proper implementation of ESI scheme.

CONSTITUTION OF ESIC

ESIC shall consist of the following members:

• Chairmen appointed by Central Government
• A Vice-Chairmen appointed by Central Government
• Not exceeding 5 persons to be appointed by Central Government
• 1 person to represent union territory appointed by Central Government
• 10 persons for representing employer appointed by Central Government
• 10 persons for representing employee appointed by Central Government
• 2 persons for representing the medical profession appointed by Central Government
• A total of 3 members of parliament out of which 2 shall be a member of Lok Sabha and 1 shall be a member of Rajya Sabha.
• 1 person to be appointed as Director-General of Corporation.

APPLICABILITY OF ESIC SCHEME

REGISTRATION under ESIC applies to the following establishments:

• Chairmen appointed by Central Government
• A Vice-Chairmen appointed by Central Government
• Not exceeding 5 persons to be appointed by Central Government
• All the establishments including:
•Factories defined as per factory Act, 1948; Shops; •Restaurants or Hotels; •Cinemas; •Road Motor Transport Establishments; •Newspaper Establishments; •Private Educational Institutions.
• Every establishment with 10 or more person employed.
• 1Only those employees are covered for the benefits of the ESI scheme whose salary does not exceed INR 21,000 or more. Earlier this limit was INR 15,000 which is extended to INR 21,000 from the date 01.01.2017.
• Seasonal factories or mines are not covered under the ESIC scheme.

NON-APPLICABILITY

Following persons are not covered under ESIC scheme:

• A partner or proprietor whether they are getting a salary or not
• A contractor
• Persons who are appointed on a contractual basis. For example, tax consultants, legal consultants.
• Apprentice as per Apprentice Act, 1961
• Seasonal factories or mines.

WAGE CEILING OF COVERAGE TO BE COVERED UNDER ESIC

The Government of India continuously has been in pursuit of expanding the base of Social Security Coverage and that's why they initiated the program of "Special registration of employers and employees" from December 2016 to June 2017. It has also decided to expand its coverage to every district in the country. For this, it has extended its wage ceiling from INR 15000 to INR 21000 w.e.f 01.01.2017. That means every employee drawing wages up to INR 21000 is covered under the ESI scheme.

BENEFITS OF ESIC

Following are the various benefits of getting covered under ESIC:

• MEDICAL BENEFITS: All form of medical benefits is availed to an employee since his employment. These medical benefits are available for both self & family.
• SICKNESS BENEFITS: In the case of medical leaves, 70% of the average of daily wages is provided in cash for ninety-one days for consecutive two periods.
• MATERNITY BENEFITS: During maternity leave, 100% of average daily wages are provided up to 26 weeks, in case of miscarriage it's for six weeks, and its 12 weeks in case of commissioning mother.
• DISABILITY BENEFITS: ESIC provides disability benefits depending upon temporary disability or permanent disability. During temporary disability, ESIC grants monthly payment till the injury last where lifelong payment in case of permanent disability.
• DEPENDENTS BENEFITS: In case of death due to employment the monthly payment is granted to the ultimate dependent. Along with funeral expenses also born by ESIC
• UN-EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: In case of employment loss, monthly cash allowances are provided by ESIC for a maximum duration of 24 months.

DOCUMENTATION:

Following are the list of documents required for registering under ESIC:

• Copy of Licenses issued under
•Factories Act; •Shops & Establishments Act
• In the case of companies, a copy of Certificate of Incorporation (COI)
• In case of partnership firm, a copy of partnership deeds
• List of all the employees working in an organization including the total number of employees, their wages and their Aadhar cards.
• Aadhar card of the nominee of an employee along with their relationship with the insured.
• PAN of an organization
• Canceled Cheque of the bank account of a Company
• List of Directors, in case of Companies
• List of shareholders
• Registers maintained for recording attendance

REGISTRATION PROCESS

• Go to an online portal for registration of establishment under ESIC. Click www.esic.in and create new registration request.
• Click the option “Click here to Login”, once clicked display another link which gives an option for “Sign Up”
• Click on Sign up and create a username and password. During signup, it asks for E-mail and Mobile Number also. After submitting, a confirmation mail is sent on Email provided.
• Now login further to complete the application for registration.
• Now one can go for combined registration under EPF & ESI through a common portal.
• After completing the registration application online, the unique code number is generated which can be used for future purposes.
• The registration certificate is an online system generated letter which needs no physical signing and can be used a valid proof of license
• All the mandatory fields which are compulsory and required to be filed are marked in Asterisk (*)
• After registration is completed, advance contribution payment for six months is made online. The formula for calculating advance contribution:

The numbers of employees (getting up to Rs.21000 per month) X minimum wages X 6 X 6.5%.
• After completing this, the registration letter along with the user-id and password is send on email for verification. This process takes 1-2 days.