Are the Labour Welfare Fund and the Shops Welfare Fund the same thing?

No. Kerala runs two separate statutory boards under two separate Acts, with different rates, different periods and different coverage. The Labour Welfare Fund Board collects 45 + 45 per half year under the 1975 Act. The Shops Board collects 50 + 50 per month under the 2006 Act. Published Kerala tables routinely mix them, which is why the figures in circulation disagree with each other and with the boards.

The Labour Welfare Fund Board's own website shows Rs 4 and Rs 8. Why does this tool say Rs 45 and Rs 45?

Because Rs 4 and Rs 8 is obsolete, and the Board has not updated its site. The rate was raised to Rs 45 + Rs 45 by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Ordinance No. 120 of 2021, superseded by the Amendment Act of 2021, both deemed to commence on 16 January 2020. That is verified against the instrument. The figure still published on the Board's own site is the pre-2020 rate, and it is the clearest illustration on this site of why a rate is not trustworthy merely because a board published it.

Most of these boards publish nothing at all. How do I find my rate?

By asking the board, and this tool will not pretend otherwise. Of Kerala's sixteen welfare fund boards, only one publishes its rates online. Where a rate has not been verified against the governing instrument, this tool records no rate at all and says so, rather than filling the gap from a compliance blog. A guessed welfare fund rate is a remittance of the wrong amount, and the shortfall is the employer's.

Is welfare fund registration the same as PF or ESI registration?

No. They are entirely separate registrations, with separate authorities, separate returns and separate enforcement. An establishment fully registered for EPF and ESIC can be entirely unregistered with the relevant welfare fund board and have been for years, which is a common finding when a payroll is reviewed.

What is the due date for the Shops Board contribution?

It could not be verified, and the tool therefore states no due date for that board. The 2007 Scheme's remittance clause could not be read because the Board's own copies are image-only scans. Published third-party sources disagree — one says the 5th of the month, another the 30th. The sibling 2021 IT Scheme under the same Act requires payment before the 5th of the following month, which favours the 5th, but that is inference and not verification. Confirm it with the Board before relying on it for penalty exposure.

Do contract workers count towards the headcount?

It depends on the instrument, and this tool flags it rather than answering it. Headcount thresholds in these schemes are drafted differently, and whether contract or engaged workers count towards a threshold turns on the definition in the particular scheme. Where the answer changes whether a registration is required at all, it should be read rather than assumed.

Are the Labour Welfare Fund and the Shops Welfare Fund the same thing?

No. Kerala runs two separate statutory boards under two separate Acts, with different rates, different periods and different coverage. The Labour Welfare Fund Board collects 45 + 45 per half year under the 1975 Act. The Shops Board collects 50 + 50 per month under the 2006 Act. Published Kerala tables routinely mix them, which is why the figures in circulation disagree with each other and with the boards.

The Labour Welfare Fund Board's own website shows Rs 4 and Rs 8. Why does this tool say Rs 45 and Rs 45?

Because Rs 4 and Rs 8 is obsolete, and the Board has not updated its site. The rate was raised to Rs 45 + Rs 45 by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Ordinance No. 120 of 2021, superseded by the Amendment Act of 2021, both deemed to commence on 16 January 2020. That is verified against the instrument. The figure still published on the Board's own site is the pre-2020 rate, and it is the clearest illustration on this site of why a rate is not trustworthy merely because a board published it.

Most of these boards publish nothing at all. How do I find my rate?

By asking the board, and this tool will not pretend otherwise. Of Kerala's sixteen welfare fund boards, only one publishes its rates online. Where a rate has not been verified against the governing instrument, this tool records no rate at all and says so, rather than filling the gap from a compliance blog. A guessed welfare fund rate is a remittance of the wrong amount, and the shortfall is the employer's.

Is welfare fund registration the same as PF or ESI registration?

No. They are entirely separate registrations, with separate authorities, separate returns and separate enforcement. An establishment fully registered for EPF and ESIC can be entirely unregistered with the relevant welfare fund board and have been for years, which is a common finding when a payroll is reviewed.

What is the due date for the Shops Board contribution?

It could not be verified, and the tool therefore states no due date for that board. The 2007 Scheme's remittance clause could not be read because the Board's own copies are image-only scans. Published third-party sources disagree — one says the 5th of the month, another the 30th. The sibling 2021 IT Scheme under the same Act requires payment before the 5th of the following month, which favours the 5th, but that is inference and not verification. Confirm it with the Board before relying on it for penalty exposure.

Do contract workers count towards the headcount?

It depends on the instrument, and this tool flags it rather than answering it. Headcount thresholds in these schemes are drafted differently, and whether contract or engaged workers count towards a threshold turns on the definition in the particular scheme. Where the answer changes whether a registration is required at all, it should be read rather than assumed.

Kerala welfare fund eligibility checker

Sixteen boards, most publishing nothing, and one statutory exclusion that means a shop owes one contribution and not two. Screen your establishment in a few questions.

Rules last verified 2026-10-01

This is an information tool, not advice. It performs the arithmetic and the screening you see below on the information you give it. It does not decide whether a position is lawful, compliant or correct, it is not a substitute for professional advice, and GHR assumes no duty of care to you in respect of it.

What kind of establishment is it?What does the business actually do?How many employees?District

Is it a factory for the OSH Code?

Relevant because the Shops Fund excludes establishments covered by the Factories Act.

Is it a plantation?

Does it engage construction workers?

Does it engage headload workers?

Kerala regulates headload work closely, including statutory pooling at notified markets.

Does it operate motor transport?

Kerala runs two boards, not one, and most tables mix them

This is the single most useful thing on this page, and it corrected both positions previously in circulation:

The Rs 4 / Rs 8figure published on the Labour Welfare Fund Board’s own website is not merely misattributed — it is obsolete. It was superseded on 16 January 2020.
Rs 50 / Rs 50 monthly is real, but it belongs to the Shops Board, not the Labour Welfare Fund Board.

The decisive provision is s.3A of the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Workers’ Welfare Fund Act, 2006: notwithstanding anything in the 1975 Act, a worker under the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1960 becomes a member of the Shops Fund and ceases to be a member of the Labour Welfare Fund. For an ordinary shop the two are mutually exclusive. Every table that lists both for the same worker is adding a contribution that is not owed.

The tool applies that exclusion and says when it has. If you have been paying both, the second payment is the one to look at.

What is verified, and what is not

Of Kerala’s 16 welfare fund boards, onepublishes its rates online. Two boards’ rates have been verified at source for this site:

Shops and Commercial Establishments Workers’ Welfare Fund: Rs 50 from the employee and Rs 50 from the employer, per month, per worker, from 1 September 2022. No headcount threshold — the 2006 Act reaches a shop with a single worker. The due date could not be verified: the Board’s own copies of the 2007 Scheme are image-only scans, and published third-party sources give the 5th and the 30th.
Kerala Labour Welfare Fund Board: Rs 45 from the employee and Rs 45 from the employer, per half year, per worker, deemed effective from 16 January 2020. Due 15 July and 15 January. Operative headcount threshold: 2.

The other fourteen boards are a different picture. No rate is recorded for any of them, and no figure is invented to fill the gap. A wrong welfare fund rate is a remittance of the wrong amount, and the shortfall sits with the employer — so where a rate is unknown, this tool says so and names the board to ask.

The headcount threshold is two, not five

“Five or more persons” is still the figure most commonly published for the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund, and it is wrong. The operative threshold is two, substituted for five by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act 7 of 1994).

There is a wrinkle worth stating plainly. The Board’s own consolidated text still carries two provisos referring to five persons. Those provisos were omitted by the 1986 Amendment Act, so their presence in the consolidation is an artefact and the text is internally inconsistent. That is why this tool flags the cessation proviso for a legal read rather than treating it as settled.

The Shops Fund is different again: it has no headcount threshold at all, because the 2006 Act reaches a shop with a single worker.

Who this tool is for

An employer setting up in Kerala who has been told by one source to register with the Labour Welfare Fund Board and by another with the Shops Board.
An accountant or payroll service running Kerala payrolls, checking whether a deduction that has been made for years is the right one.
An establishment doing more than one thing— retail with a godown, a hospital with a pharmacy, a company with a construction project — where different groups of staff may sit under different boards.

The situations this tool was built for

Deducting both the Labour Welfare Fund and the Shops Welfare Fund from the same worker.
Paying Rs 4 / Rs 8 because that is what the Board’s own website still shows.
Treating the establishment as exempt because it has fewer than five employees.
Not knowing which of sixteen boards a business registered as a “commercial establishment” falls under.
An outsourcing contract covering security and housekeeping staff, who are different sectors.
Not being able to find a rate anywhere for the board that does apply.

Where the problem is the wage floor rather than the fund, the minimum wage finder is the next tool. Where it is whether PF and ESI data agree with payroll, the passbook vs payslip checker is.

Questions people actually ask

Which welfare fund applies to an ordinary shop in Kerala?: The Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Workers' Welfare Fund Board, under the 2006 Act. The exclusion most published tables miss is in s.3A of that Act: notwithstanding anything in the 1975 Act, a worker under the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act 1960 becomes a member of the Shops Fund and CEASES to be a member of the Labour Welfare Fund. For an ordinary shop the two are mutually exclusive, and a table that lists both for the same worker is adding a contribution that is not owed.
Are the Labour Welfare Fund and the Shops Welfare Fund the same thing?: No. Kerala runs two separate statutory boards under two separate Acts, with different rates, different periods and different coverage. The Labour Welfare Fund Board collects 45 + 45 per half year under the 1975 Act. The Shops Board collects 50 + 50 per month under the 2006 Act. Published Kerala tables routinely mix them, which is why the figures in circulation disagree with each other and with the boards.
The Labour Welfare Fund Board's own website shows Rs 4 and Rs 8. Why does this tool say Rs 45 and Rs 45?: Because Rs 4 and Rs 8 is obsolete, and the Board has not updated its site. The rate was raised to Rs 45 + Rs 45 by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Ordinance No. 120 of 2021, superseded by the Amendment Act of 2021, both deemed to commence on 16 January 2020. That is verified against the instrument. The figure still published on the Board's own site is the pre-2020 rate, and it is the clearest illustration on this site of why a rate is not trustworthy merely because a board published it.
What is the employee headcount threshold?: For the Labour Welfare Fund it is TWO, not five. The threshold was substituted for five by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act 7 of 1994), and 'five or more' is the pre-1994 figure which is still very widely republished. There is a wrinkle: the Board's own consolidated text still carries two provisos referring to five, omitted by the 1986 Amendment Act, so its text is internally inconsistent. Take a legal read before relying on the cessation proviso. The Shops Fund, by contrast, reaches a shop with a single worker — there is no headcount threshold for it.
Most of these boards publish nothing at all. How do I find my rate?: By asking the board, and this tool will not pretend otherwise. Of Kerala's sixteen welfare fund boards, only one publishes its rates online. Where a rate has not been verified against the governing instrument, this tool records no rate at all and says so, rather than filling the gap from a compliance blog. A guessed welfare fund rate is a remittance of the wrong amount, and the shortfall is the employer's.
Is welfare fund registration the same as PF or ESI registration?: No. They are entirely separate registrations, with separate authorities, separate returns and separate enforcement. An establishment fully registered for EPF and ESIC can be entirely unregistered with the relevant welfare fund board and have been for years, which is a common finding when a payroll is reviewed.
What is the due date for the Shops Board contribution?: It could not be verified, and the tool therefore states no due date for that board. The 2007 Scheme's remittance clause could not be read because the Board's own copies are image-only scans. Published third-party sources disagree — one says the 5th of the month, another the 30th. The sibling 2021 IT Scheme under the same Act requires payment before the 5th of the following month, which favours the 5th, but that is inference and not verification. Confirm it with the Board before relying on it for penalty exposure.
Do contract workers count towards the headcount?: It depends on the instrument, and this tool flags it rather than answering it. Headcount thresholds in these schemes are drafted differently, and whether contract or engaged workers count towards a threshold turns on the definition in the particular scheme. Where the answer changes whether a registration is required at all, it should be read rather than assumed.

Sources

Kerala Labour Commissionerate — Welfare Fund Boards — Kerala Labour Commissionerate, Welfare Fund Boards, lc.kerala.gov.in (page last updated 5 May 2026) https://lc.kerala.gov.in/en/welfare-fund-boards
Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Workers' Welfare Fund Act, 2006, s.3A and s.4 — s.3A is the provision that makes the Shops Fund and the Labour Welfare Fund mutually exclusive for a shop worker, and the provision almost every published table ignores
Rate instrument for the Shops Board — G.O.(P) No. 41/2022/LBR dated 19 May 2022, S.R.O. No. 495/2022, Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 1624
Rate instrument for the Labour Welfare Fund Board — Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Ordinance No. 120 of 2021, Kerala Gazette Extraordinary No. 2463 dated 24 August 2021; superseded by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Act, 2021. Both are deemed to commence 16 January 2020.. The Rs 4 / Rs 8 figure still published on the Board's own website is obsolete: it was superseded on 16 January 2020.
Kerala Labour Welfare Fund Act, 1975, and the 1994 amendment — the operative headcount threshold is TWO, substituted for five by the Kerala Labour Welfare Fund (Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act 7 of 1994). 'Five or more' is the pre-1994 figure and is still widely republished.
S.O. 2322(E) dated 8 May 2026 — the construction welfare cess — the cess is 1% of the cost of construction, re-notified under s.100(1) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, IN SUPERSESSION of S.O. 2899 dated 26 September 1996. Both 1996 BOCW Acts are repealed: the welfare framework moved into the Code on Social Security, 2020, and site safety into the OSH Code, 2020. Any page still citing the 1996 Cess Act as current is citing repealed law. https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2026/272359.pdf
S.R.O.(P) No. 24/2021/LBR — the IT and IT-enabled scheme — recorded but NOT verified. The scheme PDF is Malayalam with garbled extraction, and a published third-party figure contradicts the employer share read from it.

Where an official source could not be retrieved or read, this page says so instead of citing a substitute. A figure whose citation cannot be produced is a figure this site will not publish.

Talk to GHR about welfare fund registration

GHR registers establishments with the relevant Kerala board and maintains the remittances. Most boards have no working website, so the route is not self-service.

Talk to GHR about welfare fund registration All GHR tools

Important — please read before relying on this

This calculator is a self-help information tool. It is not legal, tax, accounting, payroll or other professional advice, and it is not an opinion of any kind. GHR Consultancy is not acting for you, and no adviser, client, fiduciary or other professional relationship is created by using it.

The tool and everything it produces are provided as is and as available, without any representation, warranty or guarantee of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, reliability, fitness for a particular purpose or freedom from error. GHR does not represent that the statutory position stated is current, complete, or applicable to your establishment.

The output is not a compliance certificate, clearance, approval, verification, audit or determination of any kind. It must not be relied upon and must not be used as a substitute for advice from a qualified professional. GHR assumes no duty of care to you or to any other person in respect of it. Any reliance you place on it is entirely at your own risk.

In particular, it does not:

determine that any establishment or worker is covered by any board — it screens on the factors you give it;
assert a contribution rate for a board whose rate has not been verified at source, of which there are many;
state a remittance due date for a board whose scheme could not be read;
take account of a board's own scheme, exemption or cessation provision, which has to be read; or
constitute advice, a registration, or a determination of coverage.

The position stated on this page is stated as at 2026-10-01. Statutory positions change, sometimes with retrospective effect, and GHR does not undertake to update this page. Do not assume it reflects the law at any later date.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, GHR Consultancy and its partners, employees and agents exclude all liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense of any kind — including indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, and any regulatory, statutory or contractual consequence — arising out of or in connection with the use of, or reliance on, this tool or anything it produces, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise.

If you need a determination for your establishment, that is a separate professional engagement and the only basis on which GHR can advise you. Obtain professional advice before acting on anything shown here.

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and the courts at Kerala have exclusive jurisdiction.

Page last reviewed 2026-10-01. Every statutory figure used on this page is held as a dated, sourced rule with an effective window and a notification reference. See how the rules engine works.