Taxmann's Code on Social Security 2020 with Rules & EPFO Schemes 2026 [Bare Act with Section Notes] – Presenting the Code | Section Notes | Case Laws | Rules | EPF, EDLI & Pension Schemes

Code on Social Security 2020 with Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 and the Employees' Provident Funds, Deposit-Linked Insurance and Pension Schemes 2026 [Bare Act with Section Notes] by Taxmann is a single-volume working edition of India's social security law, assembled for the transition year. The Code—in force from 21st November 2025—replaced nine labour-welfare statutes: the Employee's Compensation Act 1923, ESI Act 1948, EPF & MP Act 1952, Employment Exchanges Act 1959, Maternity Benefit Act 1961, Payment of Gratuity Act 1972, Cine-Workers Welfare Fund Act 1981, BOCW Cess Act 1996, and Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act 2008. The statutory text of that Code is freely available; what this book supplies is the apparatus that makes it usable—Section Notes printed beneath the provisions identifying the corresponding section of the repealed Act, a front-placed Comparative Study, and two-way cross-reference tables that run in both directions between the Code and all nine subsumed enactments. The problem the book is built to solve is a practical one. Anyone advising during the transition needs five things at once: the new provision, the repealed provision it descends from, confirmation that it has actually been brought into force, the rule or scheme framed under it, and the notification fixing the applicable rate. Those sit in five different places—the Code, nine repealed Acts, a Gazette commencement notification, four sets of subordinate legislation, and a run of thirty-five S.O.s and G.S.R.s. This volume puts all five on one desk and in one page-numbering system. The three principal EPFO Schemes have since been notified, on 29th June 2026, and appear here in a new Division Four running to 132 pages—the Employees' Provident Funds Scheme 2026, the Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026, and the Employees' Pension Scheme 2026, each reproduced in full with its paragraphs, tables, and forms. The 1st July 2026 contribution-rate notifications are carried in Division Three. The law stated in this book is updated as on 1st July 2026. This publication is written for those who have to apply the Code rather than study it: Labour & Employment Law Practitioners who need to know, at the clause level, where a provision of the repealed Act now sits—and whether the authority they are about to cite still holds Corporate HR Heads, Payroll Heads, IR Managers, and Compliance Officers carrying establishment practice across from the 1952, 1976 and 1995 Schemes to their 2026 successors, and reconciling contributions against the current notified rates Employers, Industrial Establishments, and Aggregators checking applicability thresholds, contribution mechanics and the gig/platform-worker framework against the primary text rather than a summary Trustees and Administrators of Exempted Establishments working to the exemption, board-of-trustees and return-filing paragraphs of the new Schemes, with the prescribed forms to hand EPFO and ESIC Officers, Inspector-cum-Facilitators, and Adjudicatory Authorities—including the Employees' Insurance Court and Competent Authorities—applying the consolidated assessment, recovery and dispute-resolution provisions BOCW Welfare Board Officials, Cess Collection Officers, and Contractors administering beneficiary registration, cess levy and self-assessment, and welfare-fund operations Trade Unions, Worker Representatives, and Gig and Platform Workers establishing registration requirements, scheme eligibility and benefit entitlements from source Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, and Cost Accountants conducting labour-code due diligence, statutory audits and contribution reconciliation Law Students, Academicians, and Policy Researchers tracing India's migration from the legacy statutes to the Code-based framework The Present Publication is the July 2026 Edition, covering the amended and updated text of the Code on Social Security [Act No. 36 of 2020] and Rules and Schemes, with the following noteworthy features: [Section Notes – The Core Editorial Feature] A corresponding-provision note is printed beneath the provisions throughout the text—224 in all—naming the section of the repealed Act from which each derives. This is the book's principal editorial labour and its principal utility: it converts a bare statute into a bridge between two regimes, so that a decades-old authority under the 1952 or 1972 Act can be placed against the Code provision that now carries it, without a separate concordance [The Definitions Mapped, and the Gaps Marked] All 91 definitions in the definition clause are individually annotated. 68 carry a corresponding-provision note; 23 do not—because nothing in the repealed Acts corresponds to them. Terms such as aggregator, gig worker, platform worker, fixed-term employment, and wage ceiling are therefore visibly flagged as areas where no legacy precedent exists at all. Few bare Acts tell you where the case law runs out [Enforcement Footnote on Every Section] Each section carries a footnote recording the precise date it came into force and the notification that did it. In a year of staged commencement—with provisions brought in during 2021, 2023 and 2025, and a corrigendum amending the main commencement notification—this removes the single most common source of error in advising on the Code [Two-Way Statutory Cross-Reference Tables] Ten tables in all: a master table running from Code section to the corresponding provisions of the nine repealed laws, and nine reverse tables—one for each repealed Act—running the other way. Provisions that were not carried forward are marked as omitted, so a search that ends in silence is answered rather than left open [Front-Placed Comparative Study] Roughly forty pages of original editorial analysis, positioned before the statutory text, comparing the Code against the nine repealed Acts subject by subject: what was retained, what was recast, what is new, and what was consciously dropped. It is the fastest route to understanding the shape of the change before working through the sections themselves [Relevant Case Laws] A consolidated block of twelve Supreme Court authorities digested under the gratuity provision, arranged under three heads—Retirement benefits; Gratuity and pension is right, not bounty; and Payment of Gratuity Act (now Chapter V of the Social Security Code) has overriding effect—confirming the interpretations carried forward from the repealed Act [New in this Edition—Division Four | The Three EPFO Schemes] The Employees' Provident Funds Scheme 2026, the Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026, and the Employees' Pension Scheme 2026. Each is reproduced in full, with the notification particulars and the scheme it supersedes stated at the head [The Complete Subordinate Legislation, in One Place] The Social Security (Central) Rules 2026 in full—together with the Other Beneficiaries and Members of their Families Medical Facilities Scheme 2026. The Rules alone supersede twelve earlier sets of subordinate legislation; having them consolidated removes the need to work from superseded rule books [Thirty-Five Notifications, in Sequence] The full enforcement history reproduced in order—commencement, the corrigendum amending it, ESI area notifications, the designation of Authorised Officers, Recovery Officers, competent and appellate authorities and compounding officers, and the contribution, cess, interest and threshold rates in force. Reproduced as notified, so a rate can be cited to its S.O. rather than to a secondary source [Seven Schedules] The First Schedule (chapter-wise applicability), Second (persons deemed employees), Third (occupational diseases), Fourth (Part I—permanent total disablement; Part II—permanent partial), Fifth (matters for the Schemes), Sixth (lump-sum compensation factors), and Seventh (Classification of Aggregators—the nine-category table that determines who owes the aggregator contribution), reproduced as part of the statutory text [Official FAQs and the Ministry's Compliance Handbook] Seven sets of Government FAQs spanning all four Labour Codes—including 26 on the Social Security Rules, grouped under eight subject heads—and the Ministry of Labour and Employment's Compliance Handbook for Employers under the Four Labour Codes (Central Government Sphere) in seven chapters, closing with a summary of action points. Official material, gathered rather than paraphrased [Research Tools] A comprehensive Subject Index; the Statement of Objects and Reasons; section-wise Notes on Clauses; and an Appendix reproducing the provisions of some twenty other Acts referred to within the Code—among them the Factories Act 1948, Companies Act 2013, Mines Act 1952, Income-tax Act 1961 and Working Journalists Act 1955—so that a borrowed definition can be checked without leaving the volume [Authoritative Bare Act Presentation] Taxmann's Bare Act editorial standard is maintained throughout: authenticated statutory text, supported by Section Notes, corresponding-provision references and comparative context, without interpretational dilution. Each of the four Divisions carries its own page-numbering series, so citations are unambiguous The publication is organised across four Divisions, sequencing context, primary law, subordinate legislation, administrative material, and the operative Schemes: Division One | Code on Social Security 2020 o Two-Way Sectional Tables—Code v Repealed Laws, and the reverse mapping for each of the nine repealed Acts o Comparative Study of the Code against the nine repealed Acts o Arrangement of Sections o Text of the Code on Social Security 2020, with Section Notes and Case Laws o First to Seventh Schedules o Subject Index o Statement of Objects and Reasons o Notes on Clauses o Appendix—Provisions of Other Acts Referred to in the Code Division Two | Rules and Scheme o Arrangement of Rules o Social Security (Central) Rules 2026, with Forms I to XXX o Other Beneficiaries and Members of their Families Medical Facilities Scheme 2026 Division Three | Notifications and Clarifications o Notifications o FAQs on the Four Labour Codes o Compliance Handbook for Employers under the Four Labour Codes (Central Government Sphere) Division Four | Schemes Issued under the Code on Social Security 2020 o Employees' Provident Funds Scheme 2026 o Employees' Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme 2026 o Employees' Pension Scheme 2026 Read more