Income Tax Act, 1961
Sch. IV Part A Rule 4. CONDITIONS TO BE SATISFIED BY RECOGNISED PROVIDENT FUNDS.
In order that a provident fund may receive and retain recognition, it shall, subject to the provisions of rule 5, satisfy the conditions set out below and any other conditions which the Board may, by rules, specify – (a) All employees shall be employed in India, or shall be employed by an employer whose principal place of business is in India;
(b) The contributions of an employee in any year shall be a definite proportion of his salary for that year, and shall be deducted by the employer from the employee’s salary in that proportion, at each periodical payment of such salary in that year, and credited to the employee’s individual account in the fund;
(c) The contributions of an employer to the individual account of an employee in any year shall not exceed the amount of the contributions of the employee in that year, and shall be credited to the employee’s individual account at intervals not exceeding one year;
(d) The fund shall be vested in two or more trustees or in the Official Trustee under a trust which shall not be revocable, save with the consent of all the beneficiaries;
(e) The fund shall consist of contributions as above specified, received by the trustees, of accumulations thereof, and of interest credited in respect of such contributions and accumulations, and of securities purchased therewith and of any capital gains arising from the transfer of capital assets of the fund, and of no other sums;
(f) The employer shall not be entitled to recover any sum whatsoever from the fund, save in cases where the employee is dismissed for misconduct or voluntarily leaves his employment otherwise than on account of ill-health or other unavoidable cause before the expiration of the terms of service specified in this behalf in the regulations of the fund :
Provided that in such cases the recoveries made by the employer shall be limited to the contributions made by him to the individual account of the employee, and to interest credited in respect of such contributions in accordance with the regulations of the fund and the accumulations thereof;
(g) The accumulated balance due to an employee shall be payable on the day he ceases to be an employee of the employer maintaining the fund;
(h) Save as provided in clause (g) or in accordance with such conditions and restrictions as the Board may, by rules, specify, no portion of the balance to the credit of an employee shall be payable to him.
