Payment of Contributions

Employers Divided into Two categories

Making Remittances

The Total Amount should be remitted to
The Finance Manager (Contribution Collection)
Employees’ Trust Fund Board
22nd Floor, “Mehewara Piyesa”,
Narahenpita,
Colombo 05.

Very Important

Monthly contributions should reach ETF Board on or before the last working day of the following month.

Manual Mode - Payments by Cheques/Money Orders/Cash

All payments should be made along with a duly filled Advice of Remittance ( R1 or R4 Form ) in duplicate. The duplicate copy of the form would be returned to the Employer by the ETF Boardin acknowledgement of the remittance.

All cheques/Bank drafts must be crossed and payable to “Employees’ Trust Fund Board”. Payments by money Orders should be made favoring “Employees’ Trust Fund Board”. Paying office to be indicated as “General Post Office”.
Payments by cheques& money orders may be made to the ETF Head Office at Narahenpita,ETF office at ColomboFort and to the regional offices at Gampaha, Kandy, Matara,Kurunegala, Galle, Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Kalutara, Hatton, Badulla, Kegalle, Hambantota & Ampara.
Payments by cash are accepted only at Bank of Ceylon- Torrington Square branch,Bank of Ceylon – Super Grade Branch at Pettah, and People’s Bank – Narahenpita branch.
Amount in the cheque or money order should tally with the total amount indicated in the Remittance Form.
A separate remittance form should be used for each month in respect of payments ofarrears. If not so, please attach a separate schedule indicating the breakdown of the total amount.
Employers who make payments with R1 Remittance Form should continue the same procedure, even though the number of employees falls below 15 in any month. All government and semi-government institutions should use R1 Remittance Forms to makepayments. Individual member contribution details should be sent in Form II form on half yearlybasis. For details please contact Manager – Member Accounts (Larger Category) on Telephone No. +94 11 7747259

Employers who wish to change the Remittance Form from R4 to R1, as a result of increasing the number of employees in their establishments, should inform the ETF Office, for necessary instructions, before changing the remittance form. (Tel. +94 11 7747264)

Important

Employers who have more than 15 employees must use the R1 Remittance Form and employers who have less than 15 employees may use the R4 Remittance Form when they make monthly contributions.

For further details please contact the ETF Office on Telephone Nos. +94 11 7747260 / +94 11 7747263

Mandatory Requirement of ETF Contribution Payment Through Online Payment Modes

ETF Board has introduced on-line payment scheme, since it is the most convenient and quick payment system.

Regulations made by the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policies by virtue of the powers vested in him by Section 43, of the Employees’ Trust Fund Act, No. 46 of 1980.

REGULATIONS

The Employees’ Trust Fund Regulations 1981, published in Government Gazette No.125 dated 23^rd January 1981 is hereby amended as follows:-

The following new regulations are hereby inserted immediately after regulation 3 (1)(b) shall have effect as3.(1)(c) and (d) of the Regulations;

“(c) Where any employer having in his employment a minimum of fifteen employees shall, from 01^st February 2023, make such contributions electronically through a computer system of a mobile electronic device.

(d) It shall be the duty of every employer having in his employment a minimum of fifteen employees to furnish returns monthly to the Board by electronic means. This direction shall come into effect from 01^st of February, 2023”.

Employers may use following electronic payment methods

Online Payment Direct Debit

Online Payments – This facility can be arranged through following banks:

Bank of Ceylon

+94 11 2204659
+94 11 2204654

Commercial Bank

+94 11 2353588
+94 11 2353628

Peoples Bank

+94 11 2594503
+94 11 2586631

Sampath Bank

+94 11 2332173
+94 11 4730572

Seylan Bank

+94 11 2008888

Nations Trust Bank

+94 11 4711411

D F C C Bank

+94 11 2310537
+94 11 2310551

Hatton National Bank

+94 11 2661976
+94 11 2661960

National Development Bank

+94 76 5366381
+94 77 3402759

Direct Debit Payments – This facility can be arranged through any Commercial Bank in Sri Lanka

For further details and facility arrangements you may contact the following persons.
1. Mangala – 0117747829 2. Lahiru – 0117747850

The file format of the magnetic media file to upload the Form II/ R4(Member details) through Internet are given in the Form II /R4 member datafile format details. Prior to make the payments please obtain details about uploading of member contributions from Manager (Member Accounts – Larger Category) of ETF Board on 011-2369596
In case of surcharge payments, entering of Surcharge Notice number is mandatory.
Please obtain a receipt from the computer as an acknowledgement. Receipts are not issued by theETF Board for payments made through Internet.

Penalties / Surcharges

For delayed payments (when the amount paid is less than the calculated contribution a penalty will be added according to the number of days from the underpayment to the full payment).

For Delayed Payments	Surcharge Payable on Contribution
For a delay not exceeding 10 days	5%
For a delay between 11 days to 01 month	15%
For a delay between 01 to 03 months	20%
For a delay between 03 to 06 months	30%
For a delay between 06 to 12 months	40%
For a delay exceeding 12 months	50%

For delayed returns (Form II)

Employers who are liable to contribute to the ETF under remittance form R1 are required to furnish half yearly return incorporating details of contributions made on behalf of its employees in respect of each month in the following manner.

∎ 1 st half year return (January to June) on or before 31 st August of the same year.
∎ 2 nd half year return (July to December) on or before 28 th February of the following year.

Employers who are submitting the above returns after the due date shall be liable to pay a surcharge at the rate of one percent of the amount of the contribution to which the return relates for every completed month or part thereof from the last date on or before which the return was due to the date of receipt by the Board of a duly completed and correct return.

Registration of Employers with the ETF

Unlike EPF, ETF has no registration procedure prior to making contributions.

The first and foremost obligation of any employer who has started a business and recruited his 1 st employee is to register the business with the Commissioner General of Labour and obtain a registration number for the employment.
On receipt of the Registration Number from the Labour Department the employer must either write or personally call over at the ETF Office and obtain the relevant forms and instructions to make payments to the ETF.
Once the 1 st contribution is received at the ETF Board that employer will be entered in the “Contributing Employers List” in the ETF.
Employers who are contributing to approved Provident Funds are given separate Numbers from the ETF. Such employers should quote that Number in all monthly remittance forms half yearly returns and other correspondences.

The ETF does not have a separate registration system. Therefore, the ETF is also using the employers EPF registration number for their payment and other activities. The new employers who are not obtained an EPF number can obtain a temporary number from the Contribution/Collection Section of ETF for their payments until they get the EPF registration number from the Labour Department.

Assigning of Numbers to Members

It is the responsibility of the employer to assign numbers to his employees.

Under no circumstances a number once given to an Employee should be allocated to another employee even if such employee has left the organization.
If an employee who has resigned rejoins the same company after obtaining the ETF refund should be given a new number.

Who is eligible for membership

The nature of the job is irrelevant. The category of employment is immaterial. Employer should be contributed whether they are permanent, temporary, apprentice, casual or shift workers.

Employees working on piece rate, contract basis, commission basis, work performed any manner what so ever are eligible for membership

Legal Action on Defaultered Employers

The Enforcement & Prosecution Officers are following up about the defaultered and non-contributing employers. “Every employer who is liable to pay contributions to the Fund as specified by the Employees’ Trust Fund Act No. 46 of 1980 and its amendments should pay contributions to the Fund on time. Otherwise the enforcement & prosecution officers will implement all necessary actions for these defaultered and noncontributed employers to make the payment with the additional surcharges.

In the event of underpayment or nonpayment of contributions any employee can make a written complain with an affidavit to Chairman, General Manager or DGM(E & RD) any Area Business Manager. Employees can make their complaints against their employers through letters, e-mail or personally to the ETF offices. If the employer doesn’t fully comply with the orders made by the ETF Board will take legal action against the respective employer to safeguard the rights of the employees.