TL;DR
- Haryana runs the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act 1965 through its own Labour Welfare Board. The employee contributes 0.2% of wages each month, capped at ₹35 from January 2026, and the employer contributes twice that, so ₹70 per employee, a combined ₹105. Section 9A(2) requires one annual online payment before 31 December, and interest of 12% per annum runs from that date once the one-month window closes.
Last updated: 16 October 2026
Quick Answer: Haryana Labour Welfare Fund contributions accrue monthly at 0.2% of wages with a ceiling of ₹35 and are payable before 31 December. The employer contributes twice the employee amount, so ₹70 at that ceiling, giving a combined ₹105 each month. Section 9A of the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act 1965 requires payment online to the Welfare Commissioner.
The liability sits in a State enactment, not a central one. Haryana administers the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act 1965 through the Haryana Labour Welfare Board, and the Labour Department publishes the ceiling it applies from 1 January each year. The ceiling is not fixed in the long term. A proviso to section 9A(1) indexes it annually to the consumer price index.
| Item | Position in Haryana for 2026 |
|---|---|
| Governing enactment | Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1965, as amended for Haryana |
| Administering body | Haryana Labour Welfare Board, through the Welfare Commissioner |
| Employee contribution | 0.2% of salary, wages or remuneration, ceiling ₹35 per month |
| Employer contribution | Twice the employee amount, so ₹70 per month at the ceiling |
| Combined monthly maximum | ₹105 for each employee |
| Accrual | Monthly, on the register position at month end |
| Payment | Once a year, before 31 December, through online mode |
| Interest on late payment | 12% per annum under section 9A(4) |
| Annual return | Extract from Form B to the Welfare Commissioner by 31 January |
What Are the Haryana Labour Welfare Fund Contribution Rates in 2026?
The employee contributes 0.2% of salary, wages or any remuneration for each month, subject to a ceiling of ₹35. The employer contributes twice that amount for each such employee, so ₹70 at the ceiling. The combined maximum is ₹105 for each employee each month.
The percentage is the rate and the rupee figure is only a cap. An employee drawing ₹12,000 a month contributes ₹24, because 0.2% of ₹12,000 falls below the ceiling. The ceiling binds only once monthly wages reach ₹17,500.
How Has the Haryana Ceiling Moved Over Time?
Haryana ran flat rupee amounts until 2019 and a percentage with a ceiling after that. The table below reproduces the contribution history the Labour Department Haryana publishes for the Board.
| Effective from | Employee contribution | Employer contribution | Combined per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2002 | ₹1 | ₹2 | ₹3 |
| April 2007 | ₹5 | ₹10 | ₹15 |
| April 2012 | ₹10 | ₹20 | ₹30 |
| April 2019 | 0.2% of wages, ceiling ₹25 | Twice the employee amount | ₹75 |
| January 2023 | 0.2% of wages, ceiling ₹31 | Twice the employee amount | ₹93 |
| January 2025 | 0.2% of wages, ceiling ₹34 | Twice the employee amount | ₹102 |
| January 2026 | 0.2% of wages, ceiling ₹35 | Twice the employee amount | ₹105 |
Older material still circulates with the ₹25 ceiling, because that was the figure when the percentage basis was introduced by Haryana Act No. 18 of 2019 dated 14 March 2019. It has moved three times since.
Which Wage Figure Does the 0.2% Apply To?
Section 2(11) takes its meaning of wages from section 2(6) of the Payment of Wages Act 1936. That is the reference point for the calculation, not gross cost to company and not a payroll system's own earnings total. Reconcile the base before the percentage is applied.
One point of housekeeping on that reference. Section 69(1) of the Code on Wages, 2019 repealed the Payment of Wages Act 1936 with effect from 21 November 2025, so the Act the State definition points at is no longer in force in its own right. The figures in this article do not move: a definition incorporated into a State enactment by reference continues to supply its meaning there. Confirm with the Haryana Labour Welfare Board how it now reads that reference before relying on it for an edge case.
When Is the Haryana Labour Welfare Fund Due Date?
The whole year is paid once, before 31 December. Section 9A(2) requires every employer to pay both its own contribution and the employee's contribution to the Fund before 31 December of every year, through online mode, in favour of the Welfare Commissioner. The sub-section was substituted by Haryana Act No. 16 of 2021 dated 5 April 2021, which is when the online route became the statutory mode.
This is the point most often misread. The contribution accrues every month, but there is no monthly or half-yearly remittance in Haryana.
Which Month's Register Fixes the Liability?
The Explanation to section 9A(1) defines an employee, for contribution purposes, as a person on the register of an establishment on the last working day of the month. Liability therefore follows the register position at month end, not whether the person was still employed when the annual payment fell due.
How Is the Employee's Share Recovered?
Section 9A(3) entitles the employer to recover the employee's contribution by deduction from wages, and not otherwise. Read the closing words literally. A demand for cash, or an adjustment against any other sum, is outside the recovery the section permits. The employer remits both halves in one payment under section 9A of the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act 1965.
Who Must Pay the Labour Welfare Fund in Haryana?
Every employer of an establishment is liable, and section 2(4) defines establishment in three limbs. A factory is one. Premises in any part of which an industry within section 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 is carried on are another. That second limb still reads onto the Industrial Disputes Act 1947: section 104(1) of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 is not self-executing, and S.O. 5320(E) of 21 November 2025 says only that the Code comes into force, so treat the 1947 Act's status as a question for the Board rather than as settled either way.
The third limb is a shop or commercial establishment within the Punjab Shops and Commercial Establishments Act 1958 in which, on any day, ten or more employees are employed, or were employed during the preceding twelve months.
Does a Later Fall in Headcount End the Liability?
Read the preceding-twelve-months wording carefully. The third limb catches an establishment that employed ten or more people on any day in that window, so a shop that has since dropped below ten remains within the definition for as long as the look-back period reaches a qualifying day. Headcount on the payment date is not the test.
Are Contract Workers Counted?
Yes. Section 2(2) defines an employee as any person employed directly or through any agency, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer, for remuneration in any factory or establishment, to do any work connected with its affairs. Contract and agency staff doing work connected with the establishment's affairs fall inside that definition.
What Happens If the Haryana Labour Welfare Fund Is Paid Late?
Interest runs at 12% per annum, and the trigger date and the run date are not the same. Section 9A(4) makes an employer who fails to pay within one month of the date specified in sub-section (2) liable to interest from that specified date until the amount is actually deposited with the Welfare Commissioner.
The one month is the trigger, not a free extension. An employer paying in February therefore carries interest from 31 December, not from the end of January.
What Is the Penalty on Conviction?
Section 26A sets a band with a floor at both levels, so the lower figure matters as much as the upper one. Section 26B adds that no court inferior to a Judicial Magistrate of the First Class may try an offence, and that cognizance is taken only on a complaint made by an Inspector.
| Offence | Fine | Imprisonment |
|---|---|---|
| First offence | Not less than ₹2,000, up to ₹5,000 | None prescribed |
| Second or subsequent offence | Not less than ₹3,000, up to ₹10,000 | Up to three months, as an alternative to fine |
Section 26A reaches more than non-payment. It also covers wilful obstruction of an Inspector, failure to produce registers, records or other documents for inspection on demand, and failure to supply true copies of such a document on demand.
Which Registers and Returns Does the Haryana Labour Welfare Fund Require?
Rule 22 of the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Rules 1966 requires every employer of an establishment to maintain a register of wages in Form A and a consolidated register of unclaimed wages and fines in Form B. A proviso removes the duplication: where the same information is already maintained in another register under another law in force, Forms A and B need not be kept separately.
Two filing dates follow, and they are not the contribution date.
| Obligation | Provision | When |
|---|---|---|
| Extract from the Form B register for the previous year, to the Welfare Commissioner | Rule 22(2) | By 31 January each year |
| Fines realised and unpaid accumulations for the quarter ending 31 March, with a statement of particulars | Rule 3(3) | By 1 May |
| Same, for the quarter ending 30 June | Rule 3(3) | By 1 August |
| Same, for the quarter ending 30 September | Rule 3(3) | By 1 November |
| Same, for the quarter ending 31 December | Rule 3(3) | By 1 February |
How Is a Haryana Obligation Tracked Alongside Other States?
A single-State employer can run this on a calendar reminder. A multi-State employer cannot, because the amount, the cycle and the register date differ in every jurisdiction, and Haryana's annual December payment does not line up with any half-yearly State. LexComply holds each State obligation as its own dated item against the entity that owns it, with one register that carries due dates across multiple jurisdictions rather than a spreadsheet per State.
The platform tracks, allocates and evidences the obligation. It does not pay or file anything: the payment is made to the Welfare Commissioner under section 9A(2), and the return goes to the same office under Rule 22(2). The same allocation model covers the statutory obligations that sit on HR and payroll, the central register of entity-level compliance items and registration support for State labour enactments. Interpretation questions on the governing text can be put to the labour-law assistant.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Treating ₹35 as the amount payable. Section 9A(1) sets 0.2% of wages as the rate and ₹35 only as the ceiling. An employee on ₹12,000 a month contributes ₹24, and the ceiling binds only from ₹17,500.
- Paying on a half-yearly cycle borrowed from another State. Section 9A(2) sets one annual payment, before 31 December, through online mode. Haryana has no mid-year instalment.
- Reading the one month in section 9A(4) as an extension. It is only the trigger. Interest at 12% per annum runs from the 31 December date, not from the end of January.
- Quoting the April 2019 ceiling of ₹25 from older material. The ceiling moved to ₹31 for January 2023, ₹34 for January 2025 and ₹35 for January 2026.
- Leaving contract and agency staff out. Section 2(2) covers a person employed through any agency, including a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer.
- Dropping an employee who left mid-month. The Explanation to section 9A(1) fixes liability on the register position on the last working day of the month.
Legal Disclaimer
This article is general information on the Punjab Labour Welfare Fund Act 1965 as administered in Haryana and is not legal advice. Verify the current ceiling, the payment route and any exemption against the Labour Department Haryana and the Haryana Labour Welfare Board before acting, and take professional advice on your own facts.
