Electronic Challan cum Return | Meaning

What is ECR?

ECR is the abbreviated form of Electronic Challan cum Return which is also termed as E-Challan Return. ECR meaning consists of the monthly return that is required to be filled and uploaded by the employers themselves on the electronic platform of the employer portal online. The return will provide all the details of the contribution and the wages in member wise manner that consists of the basic details for existing as well as the new members, that is to say, the members who have already left in the wage month as well as the members who have newly joined in the wage month for which the return is to be uploaded.

After the approval of the uploaded ECR, a challan is generated to which the employer gets access to revoke the dues via the mode of online payment. Every ECR is connected to the challan that gets remitted, and the one that is not revoked will expire almost after 2 weeks, 12 days to be precise, from the date on which the challan was generated. If the challan is uploaded every month, the employees are relieved from filing any sort of annual, monthly, and paper returns. 

What are the benefits of ECR?

•       With the upload of ECR, the employee is relieved from submitting Forms 3A, 12A, 5/10, and 6A.
•       ECR, being an electronic process that only requires an online platform, does not require the mess of paperwork.
•       After the payment, the employers are notified with SMS on their respective devices via an internal automated system.
•       ECR enables employers to easily view their account slips.