Submission of Revised and Budget Estimates for 2021-23

EMPLOYEES' PROVIDENT FUND ORGANISATION MINISTRY OF LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA Head Office Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan, 14, Bhikaiji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066 Website: www.epfindia.gov.in, www.epfindia.nic.in

No. Budget/2021-22/2022-23/Main/1867

Date: 30 SEP 2021

Subject: Submission of Revised Estimates for the year 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for the year 2022-23 in respect of Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 (including Employees' Pension Scheme, 1995) and Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976 from Zonal Offices/H.O./PDNASS.

In accordance with the provisions regarding budget contained in Para 58 of the EPF Scheme 1952, on probable Receipts and Expenditure relating to the Administration of the Funds, the Revised Estimates for the year 2021-22 and the Budget Estimates for the year 2022-23 of the Employees' Provident Fund Organization, based on the actual Income & Expenditure up to 30th September 2021 (i.e. from 01.04.2021 to 30.09.2021), are to be prepared and placed before the Central Board of Trustees, EPF for consideration and approval in this financial year.

2. The budgetary exercise may not be treated as mere routine exercise and it should receive the personal attention of the Additional CPFC of the Zone and RPFC in-charge of Regional Office for its correctness and timely submission. On the part of the RPFC, it should be treated as a vital function and RPFC should devote personal attention in assisting the Addl. CPFC in-charge of the Zone. Zonal Offices may frame the BE/RE with due care as per provisions in GFRs after assessing the actual needs of the regions. It has been observed that in the last few years, RE was more than BE but the actual expenditure was even less than the BE for some regions. Therefore, due care may be taken while submitting the estimates to Head Office. Further, RE may be projected in such a manner as to obviate the need for re-appropriation in the last quarter of the financial year.

3. PDNASS is treated as an independent office and separate funds are allotted to meet its own expenditure and the Zonal Training Institutes (ZTis) and Sub-ZTI (Shillong) working under it. As such, Director, PDNASS, may submit budget proposal separately for PDNASS including ZTis and the Sub-ZTI.

4. ACC (ASD), Head Office is also required to submit the proposal of Revised Estimates 2021-22 & Budget Estimates 2022-23 in respect of Head Office including the proposal of National Data Centre, Bhavishya Nidhi Enclave and Bhavishya Nidhi Bhawan regarding requirement of funds under the budget head "Minor Works" which will be at the disposal of Chief Engineer, Head Office.

5. The following guidelines may please be kept in mind while formulating the Revised Estimates for 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for 2022-23: -

• (i) One single proposal is required to be prepared in respect of a Zone as a whole by consolidating the proposals of Regional Offices. ACC of the Zone may immediately direct the ROs under their jurisdiction to ensure that there is no delay in transmission of the requisite information in the given format. The Revised Estimates for 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for 2022-23 for the offices of Addl. CPFCs (Zones) and Permanent Inquiry Officers, Zonal Audit Parties and Deputy Directorates (Vigilance) may include new requirements, if any, other than the routine items like Pay & Allowances, Travelling Allowance, Stationery etc. to the Zonal Offices or PDNASS as the case may be, where these offices are situated, which in turn, will include the same in the consolidated budget proposal of the Zone.
• (ii) Officer-in-charge in Regional Offices, in turn, may direct District Offices under their jurisdiction to furnish head wise demand for RE & BE and the demand of RO submitted to Zonal Office should include the RE & BE of District Offices.
• (iii) To enable Head Office to assess the amount of contributions estimated as receivable during the year 2021-22 (Revised Estimates) and in 2022-23 (Budget Estimates), the details of contributions may be given in statements as prescribed in Annexure - BT I A. The figures of Income, Contribution and Expenditure may be in Rupees format only.
• (iv) The requisition for additional funds may be sent after careful examination of the expenditure to be incurred and available funds with the Office. It is being noticed that requests for additional funds from some Zonal Offices are being received, even though, sufficient funds is available with the Zonal Office. Such practices should be avoided. It is, therefore, requested to ensure that due care is taken and Budget Proposals are made on a realistic basis.
• (v) As in the previous year, the recovery on account of Repayable Loans and Advances and Misc. Income on account of Rent etc. will continue to be treated as part of the Income. The estimates may be worked out on the basis of Actuals for the year 2020-21 & Actuals as on 30.09.2021.
• (vi) Para 11.5 of the agreement states that "SBI link branches to raise bills for service charges on monthly basis before the concerned Regional Offices. If there is no approval from the Regional Office within 15 days from the receipt of the bill, it shall be deemed approved and SBI may debit the service charge to Account No.2 {Employees' Provident Fund Regional Administration A/c} only maintained at Regional Offices of the Central Board. In case, the Regional Office concerned raises a dispute on the amount claimed, the amount under dispute shall be resolved in accordance with Para 19 of this agreement.". In this regard, Zonal Offices to advise their Regional Offices to assess and properly project their budget requirement under this head for the year so that situation of ex-post facto approvals is avoided. It is requested to ensure that agreement between EPFO & SBI is being followed in letter and spirit in field offices.
• (vii) The amount sanctioned under the Budget Head "Staff paid from Contingencies" in RE 2020-21 and BE 2021-22 was given taking into consideration the joining of newly recruited SSAs in the field offices. Therefore no additional budget under this Head will allowed in RE for 2021-22. The Zonal Offices are advised that for projecting their estimates for RE 2021-22 and BE 2022-23 under the Budget Head "Staff paid from Contingencies", this factor should be taken into consideration.
• (viii) Consequent to the amendment of Paragraph 27 of the Pension Scheme, the ratio for the apportionment of expenditure between the two Schemes i.e. Employees' Provident Fund Scheme and Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme is 99:1. In order to keep the expenditure within the prescribed ratio, the estimates should be prepared in a consolidated form i.e. E.P.F. + E.D.L.I. The final apportionment in the prescribed ratio will be done by Head Office after considering and finalizing the budget proposals by the field offices. In view of this, separate budget proposal for expenditure in respect of E.D.L.I. Scheme is not required. However, the budget proposals of Revised Estimates for 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for 2022-23 in respect of contribution and income under E.D.L.I. may be furnished separately in Annexure enclosed along with the budget proposals of the Region.
• (ix) The estimates should be furnished in respect of Standard Heads of Account only as annexed to this Office Memorandum and mixing of different heads and creation of new ones is not allowed. Care may be taken to book the expenditure under the appropriate Heads only. For instance, if any expenditure has been incurred on account of Sports Activities, Holiday Home, Information Technology, Dearness Allowance, Staff paid from Contingencies, Office Equipment, and Training & Conference, the same may be shown invariably under proper head against Actuals with specific remarks.
• (x) It may be ensured that there shall be no variation between the figures pertaining to Income & Expenditure of the previous year already reported in the Audited Balance Sheet and Actuals for 2020-21 shown in the budget proposals for 2021-22. Similarly, actual expenditure up to 30.09.2021 as reported in RE 2021-22 should tally with the figures so far reported by the Regions in the Monthly Expenditure Return II up to the month of September, 2021.
• (xi) While preparing the estimates, the instructions of the Government of India, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance OM No. 7(1)E.Coord/2014 dated 29.10.2014 on Expenditure Management - Economy Measures and Rationalization of Expenditure and OM No.12(13)-B(W&M)/2020 dated 30.06.2021 on Cash Management system in Central Govt.-Modified Exchequer Control based Expenditure Management may be followed in letter and spirit. Also, letter No. Budget-Misc. (4)/ 2021-22/By mail dated 17.06.2021 issued by Head Office on Curtailing Avoidable Expenditure: 20% Reduction in Controllable Expenditure may also be considered in the process of budget estimating.
• (xii) The budget proposals have to be co-related with regard to Income while proposing Expenditure in the Revised Estimates for 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for 2022-23. It may be ensured that Income resources are sufficient to withstand the proposed increase in the expenditure. In this context, it becomes imperative to see that all sources of Income are fully utilized and special attention is bestowed on collection of entire Administrative Charges and Inspection Charges due during the year itself.
• (xiii) Any variation beyond 10%, in respect of income, contribution & expenditure between Budget Estimates for 2021-22 and Revised Estimates for 2021-22 should be explained by way of a separate note with proper justification by Regional Office to Zonal Office, which in turn shall consolidate and submit the same to Budget Division, Head Office with their recommendations.
• (xiv) The reasons for variation i.e. the anticipated increase or decrease under Contribution, Income and Expenditure in Revised Estimates 2021-22 may be worked out with reference to the Actuals for the year 2020-21 as well as Budget Estimates for 2021-22. The Budget Estimates for 2022-23, may be with reference to figures shown in Revised Estimates for 2021-22.
• (xv) The Zonal Offices may, in turn allocate adequate funds to the subordinate offices under their jurisdiction based on the RE & BE submitted by respective ROs. The requirements of the ROs may also be factored in the proposal of the Zonal Office and are to be annexed with the consolidated RE & BE.
• (xvi) The Zonal Offices may also furnish the details of staff (sanctioned and in-position) posted in ZO and respective ROs in the attached format (Page No.-18).

6. The existing system of discussions by RPFCs of the Regions with their respective Additional CPFCs of Zones on the estimates may be carried out in advance by convening a meeting of RPFCs so that all issues are sorted out in advance while sending the budget proposal to Head Office and there is no problem in distributing the amounts on receipt of the approved Budget based on proportion to RE & BE submitted by them. For this purpose, Additional CPFCs of Zones are requested to:-

• (i) Act as resource person for regional formations in Budget Proposal for the ROs in a fair manner as well as in distribution of funds between offices in the Region as per the requirements of each Office.
• (ii) Be involved in every stage of the budget formulations in an appropriate manner and evaluation of each proposal of all the offices under their jurisdiction with reference to their past performance, proper utilization of funds, expenditure incurred, and controls maintained etc.
• (iii) Act as economy scrutinizer and inform as and when estimates and the expenditure causes a mismatch.

7. Addl. CPFC (IS), H.O. is requested to review the budgetary requirements for the Revised Estimates 2021-22 and Budget Estimates 2022-23 under the budget head "Information Technology (Normal/Project)" and to forward their proposals Region-wise with proper justification by 20th October, 2021. The requirements under Normal Course and requirements under 'Project' may be projected separately. The expenditure incurred under BE 2021-22 may also be included in the proposal. The actual expenditure incurred during the financial year 2020-21 may also be intimated.

8. R.P.F.Cs-in-Charge, Zonal Training Institutes, Faridabad, Ujjain, Kolkata, Chennai & sub-ZTI Shillong are requested to submit their proposal to Director, PDNASS so that they can submit complete proposal to Head Office before target date i.e. 20th October, 2021.

9. The Officer-in-Charge, Regional Offices are requested to submit the budget proposals to their respective Zonal Offices before the target date which may be decided by Zonal Offices. It is to be ensured that no budget proposal from the Regional Offices are submitted to the Head Office directly.

10. ACC (PID), H.O. is requested to furnish the figures in respect of Original works under 'Capital Expenditure', Office-wise with detailed justification by 20th October 2021. Further, provisioning for Capital budget requirement under original jurisdiction of ACC-Zones, may be incorporated in RE 2021-22 and BE 2022-23 at the time of preparation of Annual Budget, to streamline the process of Capital budget planning. It may also be noted that to avoid instances of request for revalidation of budget/additional allotment from Central Pool, the provision for RE 2021-22 and BE 2022-23 be meticulously planned, keeping in view the expected payment schedule of ongoing/new projects under the budget head "Capital Expenditure".

11. Addl. C.P.F.C. (HR) is requested to:-

• (a) Intimate the total number of posts sanctioned and filled up category-wise as on 30.09.2021 including Head Office with Pay Band, Grade Pay and also details of Additional Staff proposed to be sanctioned during 2021-22. Financial implication in respect of additional staff proposed to be sanctioned may also be intimated by 20th October, 2021.
• (b) Similarly, proposal for requirement of Budget under the head 'Purchase of Motor Vehicles' for ZOs, Head Office, PDNASS including ZTis may also be forwarded accordingly within the due date.
• (c) Also, the proposal of Budget requirements for the Welfare Activities and Sports Activities in respect of all the field offices including Head Office by 20th October, 2021. The actual expenditure incurred during the financial year 2020-21 may also be intimated.

12. Addl. C.P.F.C. (Publicity) is requested to review the budgetary requirement for Revised Estimates 2021-22 and Budget Estimates 2022-23 and to forward the proposal by 20th October, 2021.

13. To institutionalize the system of budgeting under Zonal Offices, the final proposals of respective ROs under the Zone are required to be annexed with the consolidated proposal submitted to Budget Division at Head Office.

14. The proposals of Revised Estimates for the year 2021-22 and Budget Estimates for the year 2022-23, duly incorporating the requirement of Regional Offices and other subordinate offices as stated in Para 5(i) above and complete in all respects may reach this office by 20th October, 2021. The proposal may be prepared in attached MS-Excel Sheet. Separate worksheets should be utilized for entering the figures related to Expenditure, Income and Contributions (EPF, EPS and EDLI schemes) respectively. The proposal may be forwarded in Hard Copy and through e-mail (budget.ho@epfindia.gov.in) by 20th October, 2021.