If our experts find your requirement can't be fulfilled as scoped, you get a full refund of the professional fee — no questions, no fine print. Government charges already paid are pass-through and go to the government, not us.
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Every quote shows the professional fee, government charges and taxes as separate lines — you approve the full breakup in writing before paying anything.
Government charges are pass-through
Filing fees and department charges go to the government, not to us. They vary by state and case, so we show them separately for your situation.
No payment without your sign-off
The free consultation comes first. You only pay after you have seen the exact scope, the exact breakup and the expected timeline — no surprises later.
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Free consultation. Tell us what you need; a CA, CS or advocate maps the exact scope.
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Written quote. You receive the plan, the line-by-line breakup and the timeline in writing.
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You approve, then pay. Work starts only after you sign off on the quote.
ESI Registration Package Inclusions
ESI registration on the ESIC portal
Employee and wage documentation
IP number generation for employees
Monthly challan process briefing
Registration with compliance calendar
Clear scope
You know exactly which filings, documents and handover items belong to your selected plan.
Extra costs shown separately
State-specific and case-specific government charges are shown separately.
No blind upgrade
Choose the tier around the way you plan to operate, not simply the highest price.
After you pay
What happens after you pay
Five steps, no guesswork — you always know exactly what comes next. Tap a step to see what it involves.
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You pay securely. Payment is confirmed instantly, and your receipt with the written fee breakup lands in your inbox.
Is ESI registration mandatory for you?
You must register if all three conditions hold:
Headcount: your factory or establishment employs 10 or more persons. In some states (Maharashtra is the prominent example), the threshold for certain establishments is 20. Verify your state's position — this is the most common source of confusion.
Area: your establishment is in an implemented area — a district or zone where ESIC has rolled out the scheme. Coverage has expanded steadily; Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh added districts from 1 October 2026. Check the ESIC portal's implemented-area list for your district.
Wages: you have employees earning up to ₹21,000 a month (₹25,000 for employees with disabilities). Only these employees are coverable — but the headcount test counts the establishment's strength, and registration obligation follows.
You should consider the position carefully if:
You are near the threshold. Hiring your tenth employee in an implemented area triggers the obligation. Plan the registration before the appointment letter, not after the inspection.
You use contract labour. Contract employees count for coverage purposes, and the principal employer is liable if the contractor defaults on ESI contributions.
You are in a newly implemented district. The October 2026 expansions in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh pulled entire districts into the scheme — establishments there went from zero obligation to full compliance overnight.
The trap to avoid: assuming ESI does not apply because you "already have PF." The two schemes are independent, with different thresholds, ceilings, and administrators. PF registration does not satisfy ESI, and vice versa.
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What the Code on Social Security changed (and what it did not)
The ESI Act, 1948 has been subsumed in the Code on Social Security, 2020, which became operational for ESIC purposes on 21 November 2025 (ESIC notification, 30 December 2025). What this means in practice:
Changed: the governing statute's name and section numbers, the statutory definition of wages (with the 50% rule constraining allowance-heavy structures, as with PF), and the framework for extending coverage — including to gig and platform workers under Section 45 of the Code.
Not changed (yet): the wage ceiling (still ₹21,000/₹25,000 disabled — the Labour Ministry confirmed in July 2026 that no raise is currently proposed), the contribution rates (3.25%/0.75%), the benefit structure, and the monthly compliance mechanics. Operational circulars continue to evolve; the core obligations are stable.
Direction of travel: coverage is expanding, not shrinking. District-by-district implementation continues, educational and medical institutions have been clarified as coverable in states like Maharashtra, and the wage-definition change will pull more employees inside the ceiling over time. If you are borderline today, assume you will be inside tomorrow.
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What must be decided before you register
Implemented-area confirmation. Check the ESIC portal whether your district/zone is implemented. Establishments outside implemented areas are not yet obligated — but verify, because the list changes with each expansion notification.
Employee census with wages. List every person on the rolls with monthly wages. Identify who falls within ₹21,000 (₹25,000 disabled). This census drives both the registration and the first contribution.
Contractor mapping. List every contractor, their licence status, and whether they hold their own ESIC code. Decide contractually who deposits contributions for contract staff — and build challan verification into your bill-passing process.
Dispensary mapping. Identify the ESIC dispensary/hospital your employees will be attached to. New IPs (insured persons) are mapped to a dispensary at registration; employees should know where to go before they need care.
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Advantages of ESI registration
For the employer:
Medical risk transferred at 3.25%. A workforce medical emergency is a financial and human crisis for a small employer. ESI moves that risk to a national insurance pool for roughly ₹683 a month per employee at the ceiling — less than a team lunch.
Compliance that wins business. ESI code numbers are asked for in vendor onboarding, government tenders, and factory licence renewals. Registration removes a recurring friction.
Lower attrition in wage bands that matter. For employees earning under ₹21,000, free family medical care is often worth more than a small increment. ESI is a retention tool that costs less than the increment it replaces.
No separate mediclaim needed for covered staff. Many employers drop or downsize group mediclaim for ESI-covered employees, offsetting part of the contribution cost.
For the employee and family:
Free medical care. Treatment at ESIC dispensaries and hospitals — outpatient, inpatient, medicines, diagnostics — for the insured person and dependants, with no caps and no co-pay. Super-speciality treatment is covered through tie-up hospitals.
Sickness benefit. Cash at 70% of average daily wages for up to 91 days in a year, for certified sickness.
Maternity benefit. 100% of wages for 26 weeks — plus a confinement expense where applicable. This exceeds the statutory minimum under maternity law for covered women.
Disablement benefit. For employment injury: 90% of wages as monthly pension for permanent disablement, and temporary disablement benefit at 90% during treatment.
Dependants' benefit. On death due to employment injury, monthly pension to the widow/widower and children.
Funeral expenses. ₹15,000 paid to the eldest surviving member or the person incurring the expense.
Unemployment allowance (RGSKY). Under the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana, unemployment allowance for insured persons rendered unemployed involuntarily — a little-known but real safety net.
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Documents required for ESI registration
Establishment documents:
PAN of the establishment
Registration certificate: Shops & Establishment certificate, factory licence, or GST certificate — proof of the establishment's existence and nature
Address proof of the premises
Bank account details with cancelled cheque
People and employment documents:
List of directors/partners/proprietor with PAN and Aadhaar
Employee census: names, dates of joining, monthly wages, Aadhaar numbers
Contractor details, if contract labour is engaged — principal employers must collect contractor-wise headcount and wage data, since the contractor's employees count towards your threshold
What ESIC cross-checks: the establishment's identity across PAN, registration certificate, and bank account; and the employee count against the coverage threshold. The wage census is the document most worth getting right: under-reporting headcount or splitting wages across heads to stay below the ceiling is the fastest route to a retrospective demand, and ESIC's inspection wings now cross-match employer filings with EPFO data. Keep the census honest and complete from day one.
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ESI registration process — step by step
Step 1: Confirm area and headcount. Verify implemented-area status and complete the wage census. One day with records in hand.
Step 2: Register on the ESIC employer portal. Create the employer account on esic.gov.in with establishment details — name, address, PAN, nature of business, employee strength.
Step 3: Submit the employer registration form (Form 01). The declaration of the establishment's particulars. Accuracy matters: this form is the legal basis of your coverage.
Step 4: Receive the 17-digit ESIC code number. ESIC allots the employer code — your permanent identity for all contributions, returns, and correspondence.
Step 5: Register employees as insured persons. Enter each coverable employee's details; the portal generates the IP (insured person) number. A Temporary Identification Certificate (TIC) is issued immediately; the permanent Pehchan card follows.
Step 6: Map dispensaries. Attach employees to the serving ESIC dispensary/hospital. Confirm the mapping reflects where employees actually live — a dispensary across the city is a benefit nobody uses.
Step 7: File the first monthly contribution. Contributions for the first month are due by the 15th of the following month. The cycle starts immediately — there is no grace quarter.
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How long does it take?
Day 1–2: Area confirmation, wage census, document assembly
Day 2–4: Portal registration, Form 01, code allotment
Day 4–10: Employee IP registration, TIC issuance, dispensary mapping
Realistic total: one to two weeks to a working ESIC code with employees registered. ESIC's online process is among the faster labour registrations; delays usually come from incomplete wage censuses, not the portal. The single biggest accelerator is having the employee census — names, wages, Aadhaar, dates of joining — ready before you log in. Employers who start the portal session first and hunt for wage data second routinely take three weeks instead of one.
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How ComplyKart helps in this entire process
Coverage assessment first. We verify your headcount, state threshold position, implemented-area status, and wage census, and tell you plainly whether registration is due now — including the contractor-labour dimension most assessments skip.
Document and census preparation. We build the employee wage census in ESIC-ready format and check name consistency across PAN, registration certificate, and bank records before filing.
End-to-end portal filing. Employer registration, Form 01, code allotment follow-up, IP registration, TIC generation, and dispensary mapping.
First contribution and the monthly rhythm. We file the first month's contribution and set up the payroll-to-ESIC workflow — attendance to contribution to challan — so the second month runs without us.
What we will not do: suppress headcount to stay below the threshold, misclassify employees as contractors to avoid coverage, or backdate records. ESIC inspections cross-reference ESI data with PF and Shops & Establishment records; inconsistencies surface fast.
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What happens after the code number arrives
In the first 30 days: all coverable employees hold IP numbers and TICs, dispensary mapping is confirmed, the first contribution is paid by the 15th of the following month, and employees know where their dispensary is and how to get treated.
In the first 6 months: the monthly contribution rhythm is automatic, the first contribution period closes (September or March), and the half-yearly return of contributions is filed. Handle the first sickness/maternity claims — early experience with the claims process teaches the HR team more than any manual.
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The recurring compliance you are signing up for
Every month:
Contribution payment by the 15th of the following month — 3.25% employer + 0.75% employee on coverable wages. Late payment attracts interest and damages.
New joiner IP registration within the month of joining (for employees within the wage ceiling).
Exit marking for separated employees.
Every contribution period (half-yearly):
Return of contributions for the April–September and October–March periods, with employee-wise wage and contribution details.
Event-based:
Inspections. ESIC inspection wings verify registers, contribution records, and headcount. Keep wage registers, attendance, and challans ready.
Benefit claims. Sickness, maternity, disablement, and dependants' claims flow through the IP portal and dispensaries — HR's role is timely certification and documentation support.
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Common mistakes and how they get punished
Staying unregistered past the threshold. Contributions are recoverable retrospectively from the date coverage attached, with interest and damages. ESIC's data-matching with EPFO records means unregistered establishments surface without a physical inspection.
Missing the wage ceiling. The ESI ceiling (₹21,000) is lower than the PF ceiling (₹25,000) — employees covered under PF are not automatically covered under ESI, and vice versa. Run the two censuses separately.
Contractor defaults. The principal employer is liable for contract employees' ESI. Verify contractor challans before releasing payments — every month, not once a year.
Not updating the employee master. Ghost employees inflate contributions; missing joiners create defaults. The IP master must track the actual rolls.
Ignoring the dispensary mapping. A technically compliant registration with wrong dispensary mapping delivers no usable benefit — and employees who cannot use the benefit become the loudest critics of the deduction.
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PF vs ESI — the twin compliance
If you employ 20+ people, you are almost certainly running both. PF (20+ threshold, ₹25,000 ceiling, 12%+12%) builds retirement savings; ESI (10+ threshold, ₹21,000 ceiling, 3.25%+0.75%) buys medical insurance. Different administrators, different portals, different monthly challans, same payroll data feeding both. Set up the two together — the wage census, KYC collection, and contractor verification overlap heavily, and doing them once for both is far cheaper than doing them twice.
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Sources
Code on Social Security, 2020 (Chapter IV; operational for ESIC w.e.f. 21 November 2025 per ESIC notification 30 December 2025)
Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 (subsumed; benefit and contribution structure continuing)
Lok Sabha Q&A, 27 July 2026 — MoS Labour on ESI wage ceiling (no current proposal to raise)
ESIC expansion notifications (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh — 1 October 2026)
ESIC employer portal (esic.gov.in), contribution and benefit manuals
This page was last reviewed against the above sources in October 2026. Expansion notifications and Code operationalisation circulars continue to evolve — verify implemented-area status before acting.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
21 answers from our consultants.
You pay for our expert's time — document checking, filing, follow-ups — not the government. The government fee goes to the government; our fee is for the work we do so you don't have to figure it out yourself.
Yes, if the establishment is in an implemented area — the threshold is 10 employees for most establishments (20 in some states). Coverage is not optional once the conditions are met.
₹21,000 per month (₹25,000 for employees with disabilities). The Labour Ministry confirmed in July 2026 that no increase is currently proposed. Do not confuse this with the PF ceiling, which rose to ₹25,000 in September 2026.
3.25% of wages from the employer, 0.75% from the employee. Employees earning up to ₹176 per day are exempt from the employee share — the employer still contributes.
For employees within the wage ceiling, ESI's unlimited free treatment (including for dependants) usually beats a capped group mediclaim. Many employers keep mediclaim only for staff above the ESI ceiling.
Yes — the insured person's spouse, children, and dependent parents receive medical care at ESIC facilities. This family coverage is ESI's most underappreciated feature.
The employer's permanent registration number with ESIC, allotted at registration. It appears on every contribution challan, return, and correspondence.
The Insurance Person (IP) number is the employee's ESI identity; the Temporary Identification Certificate is issued immediately at registration, followed by the permanent Pehchan card.
At the ESIC dispensary/hospital they are mapped to, on production of the Pehchan card/TIC. Referrals to tie-up hospitals cover super-speciality care.
They continue as an insured person until the end of that contribution period (September or March), then exit ESI coverage. PF membership, by contrast, continues regardless of wage growth.
Yes. Contract employees are coverable, and the principal employer is liable for their contributions if the contractor defaults. This is a frequent inspection finding.
Contributions are collected for April–September and October–March; the corresponding cash-benefit periods are the following January–June and July–December. Medical benefit continues as long as the person remains insured.
Interest on delayed payments plus damages graded by the delay, and prosecution exposure for persistent default — particularly for deducted employee contributions not deposited.
Effectively no. Like PF, ESI coverage is permanent once attached, even if headcount later falls below the threshold.
Yes, if they meet the headcount threshold in an implemented area. Shops and commercial establishments are covered — ESI is not limited to factories.
The ESI Act, 1948 was subsumed into the Code, operational for ESIC from 21 November 2025. Rates, ceilings, and benefits are unchanged; the statute name, wage definition, and coverage-expansion framework are new.
Working directors drawing wages within the ceiling in a covered establishment are generally coverable. The position depends on the employment relationship, not the title.
The Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana pays unemployment allowance to insured persons rendered unemployed involuntarily, subject to contribution conditions — a cash benefit few employees know exists.
ESI is insurance — monthly contributions fund current medical and cash benefits, with nothing accumulated. EPF is savings — contributions build an individual retirement corpus earning interest. Most covered establishments run both.
Register immediately and prepare for a retrospective demand — contributions from the date coverage attached, plus interest and damages. Voluntary disclosure before an inspection generally produces a better outcome than waiting to be found.
The ESIC portal publishes the implemented-area list, updated with each expansion notification. When in doubt, the jurisdictional ESIC regional office confirms in writing.
What clients say about working with us
Real stories from businesses we've worked with.
Trademark Registration“
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Company Registration“
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Merger & Acquisition“
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