Assessment And Determination Of Dues Under The Code On Social Security, 2020
Nikhil Mehare, Government Law College, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
The Code on Social Security, 2020 consolidated nine central labour enactments. It was brought substantially into force on 21 November 2025 by a notification which, as corrected on 19 December 2025, also repealed the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. The Code replaced the machinery for determining employer dues under the 1952 Act and the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948. This paper examines the assessment and determination of employer dues under section 125 of the Code. It tests that provision against the framework it displaced and against the employment contribution regimes of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and China.
The paper argues that the reform is narrower than is commonly supposed, and that in several respects the employer's position has worsened. It further argues that the transition has been managed by instruments whose effect is itself uncertain. Five of the seven sub-sections of section 125 reproduce section 7A of the Act of 1952, and the insurance appellate provisions substantially re-enact provisions in force since 2010. Two provisions are genuinely new, and neither does what it is taken to do. The five-year limitation proviso limits the initiation of a proceeding rather than the reach of a determination, and it gives one trigger to two jurisdictions of different character. The two-year inquiry period is an obligation to endeavour, which the authority's own administrative superior may extend.
What the Code changed lies principally in what it omitted. The powers of review and of escaped determination, and, in the provident fund chapter, the discretion to relieve an employer of the appellate pre-deposit, have gone without explanation. The transition compounds these defects in three ways. It is unsettled whether the corrigendum that completed the repeal operates from 21 November or from 19 December 2025. Inquiries pending under the repealed Act carry the repealed remedies. And the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026 abates proceedings and avoids orders by subordinate instrument.
The comparison shows India alone in limiting the initiation of a proceeding rather than the determination or its enforcement. India is also alone in making the length of the period independent of the employer's conduct, and it has no parallel in conditioning a hearing upon a percentage deposit.
Keywords: Code on Social Security 2020; assessment of dues; section 125; limitation; transition; provident fund; employees' state insurance.
