The Inactive option is not showing in my ESIC employer login. Why?

Most likely because more than six months have passed since registration. ESIC circular P-11/14/19/Misc/02/2022-Rev. II confirms the option is not available to an employer after expiry of six months, and that this is intentional. The route then is the regional or sub-regional office.

Is it called dormant or inactive?

They describe the same status. The ESIC circular uses Inactive; much published commentary uses dormant. Look for Inactive in the employer portal.

Does an LLP get an ESIC code at incorporation?

No. AGILE-PRO-S is linked to SPICe+, the company incorporation route. An LLP incorporated through FiLLiP receives PAN and TAN only, and registers for ESI separately if and when it crosses the threshold.

Does the six-month Inactive rule apply to EPFO as well?

No. The Inactive declaration and its six-month window are an ESIC portal mechanism. EPF operates on its own threshold and has no equivalent self-service status.

Post‑incorporation compliance · ESIC

ESIC Registration With No Employees — What You Actually Have to Do

Q: Do I have to file ESI returns if I have no employees?

If the establishment is not coverable (fewer than ten persons under the Code on Social Security, 2020), contribution liability does not arise. What is expected is declaring the company Inactive on the ESIC employer portal so the registration is not treated as active and defaulting.

Q: Can I cancel the ESIC code completely?

Not through the portal alone. Closure is applied for at the ESIC regional office with supporting evidence of nil employees. For a company that may hire later, maintaining Inactive status is usually the lower-effort route.

Almost every company incorporated in India since February 2020 has an ESIC code it never applied for. If you have no employees — or too few to be covered — that code is still sitting there, and ESIC’s system expects you to say something about it. You have six months from registration to declare the company Inactive on the ESIC portal. Miss that window and the option disappears from your employer login entirely, which is where most companies find themselves by the time they notice.

Short answer

Having an ESIC code is not the same as being covered by ESI. Coverage depends on how many people you actually employ, not on whether a number was issued to you at incorporation. If you are below the threshold, you are not required to contribute — but you are expected to tell ESIC that, by declaring the company Inactive (the portal also calls it dormant) within six months of registration and re-declaring it every six months after that.

If you are already past that first six‑month window, the self‑service option is gone and this becomes a matter for your ESIC regional or sub‑regional office. That is not a reason to ignore it — an un‑declared code reactivates on its own and attracts defaulter action.

Why you have an ESIC code you never asked for

When you incorporate a company through SPICe+, a linked form called AGILE‑PRO‑S (INC‑35) goes with it. That form handles GST, professional tax, a bank account — and registration with both EPFO and ESIC. Registration of new Public, Private and One Person Companies for EPFO and ESIC through these forms has been mandatory since 15 February 2020. It happens whether or not you have a single employee, and whether or not you want it.

This is worth saying plainly because it is the source of most of the confusion: the code was issued as part of an integrated setup process, not because anyone assessed your company as coverable. Nothing about receiving it means ESI coverage has started applying to you.

If you run an LLP, none of this applies to you. AGILE‑PRO‑S is linked to SPICe+, which is the company incorporation route. An LLP incorporated through FiLLiP gets PAN and TAN and nothing else — no EPFO or ESIC code is generated, and you register separately only if and when you cross the thresholds.

Registered is not the same as covered

The rule changed on 21 November 2025. That is when the Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force and repealed the ESI Act, 1948. Under the old Act there were two routes in: factories at ten persons, and shops and other establishments only where a Government had extended the Act to them by notification. Much of what is still published online describes that old split. It no longer applies.

One headcount test for everyone. Under section 1(4) and the First Schedule of the Code, ESI applies to every establishment in which ten or more persons are employed, other than a seasonal factory. Shops, offices, service companies and factories are all on the same footing.
What still varies is the area. Contributions start only from the date the Central Government notifies for the area where the establishment is located. It was reported in September 2026 that the scheme would cover all remaining districts of Gujarat from 1 October 2026.
Hazardous work is the exception. Where the Central Government notifies an occupation as hazardous or life‑threatening, ESI applies even with a single employee.

So the old question — “is our state at ten or at twenty for shops?” — has largely gone away. For a company in Gujarat the working number is ten.

Separately from all of that, ESI covers employees drawing wages up to ₹21,000 a month (₹25,000 for a person with disability), as ESIC currently states it. That figure was set under the old rules, which the Code keeps alive for a limited period, so watch for a fresh notification. It is a different test and the two get blurred constantly: the headcount decides whether the establishment falls under ESI at all, the wage ceiling decides which individual employees are insurable once it does. A company with two directors and no staff fails the first test comfortably and never reaches the second.

One Gujarat-specific point that has changed: under the old Act, Gujarat was one of a small number of States that had not notified educational or medical institutions as coverable establishments, so schools, coaching institutes and clinics here often fell outside ESI. The Code’s ten‑person test applies to every establishment, so that gap should no longer be relied on.

State notifications issued under the old Act continue under section 164(2)(a) of the Code, to the extent they are consistent with it. That includes Gujarat’s February 2023 notification extending ESI to municipal bodies employing ten or more casual or contractual persons. If you are unsure whether your premises fall in a notified area, ask us and we will check it against your registered office and headcount rather than have you rely on a guess.

The six‑month rule almost nobody mentions

Most guidance on this topic tells you to mark the company dormant and extend it every six months. That is correct as far as it goes, and it leaves out the part that actually decides what you can do — there is a hard deadline on the front end.

ESIC issued a circular to all its Regional and Sub‑Regional Offices after zero‑employee companies registered through the MCA portal reported that the dormant option was not appearing in their employer ID at all. ESIC’s ICT Cell examined it and confirmed the system had been built that way on purpose. The circular states:

“Companies registered in ESIC through MCA portal have to declare the status of the company within six month of registration to avoid defaulter action. Before the end of the ‘Inactive’ mode, the company can further extend the Inactive mode for six months and continue to extend in similar manner as per the status of the company. The option of declaring ‘Inactive mode is not available to employer after expiry of six months”.

Read that last sentence carefully, because it is the whole point. The Inactive option is available to you for six months from registration. After that it is not offered at all. A company incorporated eighteen months ago that has never logged into the ESIC portal will not find this option waiting for it.

The circular was issued under the old ESI Act. It describes how the ESIC portal works rather than a statutory rule, and we have not seen it withdrawn since the Code came into force. Note also the word the circular uses: “Inactive”. Much of the published commentary says “dormant”. They refer to the same thing, but if you are hunting for it in the employer portal, look for Inactive.

What to do — which situation are you in?

1. Incorporated within the last six months, no employees

You are in the good position and should act now rather than later. Log into the ESIC employer portal with the credentials issued at registration, declare the company’s status as Inactive, and diarise the expiry. Each declaration runs for six months and has to be renewed before it lapses. If it lapses, the registration reactivates by itself and the compliance clock starts, along with the risk of defaulter action.

2. Past six months, never declared anything

This is where most companies actually are. The portal will not offer you the Inactive option, and there is no way to give yourself one. It becomes a matter for your ESIC regional or sub‑regional office, where you set out that the establishment was never coverable — headcount, payroll records, bank statements, whatever demonstrates it — and ask for the position to be regularised.

The circular quoted above does not prescribe what happens next in this situation; it only closes the self‑service door. In practice this is handled office by office, which is exactly why it is worth doing with someone who has dealt with that office before rather than by correspondence alone.

3. You have employees and you are over the threshold

Then none of the above helps you — ESI applies, contributions are due, and returns have to be filed. The right move is to regularise from the date coverage began rather than from the date you were noticed. That is a different conversation, and a much better one to have early.

4. You want the code closed for good

ESIC does not offer a complete online cancellation. Closure or surrender is applied for at the regional office, supported by evidence that there are no employees and, where relevant, that the company itself has ceased operations. Realistically, for a company that intends to keep trading and may hire later, keeping the code Inactive is less work than closing it and registering again.

What happens if you just ignore it

The honest answer is that nothing dramatic happens for a while, and then it does. An undeclared registration is treated as active. An active registration with no contributions filed is a defaulting employer. That is what generates the notices, and it is why companies with no employees and no payroll end up explaining themselves to ESIC.

There is no version of this where the obligation quietly disappears because the company was small. What does exist — and what most people are actually looking for — is the fact that you were probably never coverable to begin with, and that is a position you can state and support. It is a much stronger footing than silence.

FAQ

Do I have to file ESI returns if I have no employees?

If the establishment is not coverable — fewer than ten persons under the Code on Social Security — contribution liability does not arise. The step that is expected of you is declaring the company Inactive on the employer portal so the registration is not treated as an active, defaulting one. Declaring status is the compliance here, not filing contributions.

Can I cancel the ESIC code completely?

Not through the portal on your own. Closure is applied for at the ESIC regional office with supporting evidence of nil employees. For a company that plans to keep operating and might hire later, maintaining Inactive status is usually the lower‑effort route.

The Inactive option is not showing in my employer login. Why?

Most likely because more than six months have passed since registration. ESIC’s own circular confirms the option is withdrawn after that period, and that this behaviour is intentional rather than a portal fault. At that point the route is your regional or sub‑regional office.

Is it dormant or inactive?

They describe the same status. ESIC’s circular uses “Inactive”; a lot of published commentary uses “dormant”. Look for Inactive when you are actually in the portal.

My LLP got an ESIC code too — same rules?

An LLP should not have one from incorporation. AGILE‑PRO‑S is attached to SPICe+, the company route; FiLLiP issues PAN and TAN only. If an LLP holds an ESIC code it came from a separate registration at some point, and the coverage tests are the same but the auto‑registration story is not.

Does the same six‑month rule apply to EPFO?

No. The Inactive declaration and its six‑month window are an ESIC portal mechanism. EPF works on its own threshold and has no equivalent self‑service status, which is why the two are handled separately even though the code arrived in the same filing.

Sources: ESIC circular F. No. P‑11/14/19/Misc/02/2022‑Rev. II (Headquarters, Revenue Division), issued with the approval of the Insurance Commissioner (Revenue), in continuation of the office letter of even number dated 21.11.2022 (issued under the ESI Act, 1948); Code on Social Security, 2020 (in force from 21 November 2025, Notification S.O. 5319(E)), section 1(4) and the First Schedule (ESI: ten or more persons, other than a seasonal factory, with contributions from the date notified for the area) and section 164 (repeal of the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, and savings); Ministry of Corporate Affairs SPICe+ / AGILE‑PRO‑S, mandatory for EPFO and ESIC registration of new companies with effect from 15 February 2020. Wage ceiling of ₹21,000 (₹25,000 for a person with disability) as stated by ESIC. Government of Gujarat, Labour, Skill Development and Employment Department Notification No. GR/2023/17/ESI/102021/1415/M-3 dated 21 February 2023 (Gujarat Government Gazette, Extraordinary, 2 March 2023) extending ESI to municipal bodies employing ten or more casual or contractual persons, continued under section 164(2)(a) of the Code. Reviewed 27 October 2026. Guidance, not legal advice specific to your establishment — confirm that your premises fall in a notified area.