NEW DELHI: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) provisional payroll data released on Sunday showed that the EPFO has added 16.82 lakh net subscribers in the month of September 2022, which is an increase of 9.14 per cent in net membership as compared to the corresponding month during last year.
As compared to the monthly average that was recorded during the last fiscal, the net enrolment during the month is 21.85 per cent higher. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, around 2,861 new establishments have started complying with the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 ensuring social security cover to their employees.
“Of the total 16.82 lakh members added during the month, around 9.34 lakh new members have come under the coverage of EPFO for the first time. Among the new members, the highest number was registered for the age group of 18-21 years with 2.94 lakh members. This was followed by the age group of 21-25 years with 2.54 lakh members”, the ministry said in a statement.
“Approximately 58.75 per cent are from the age group of 18-25 years of age. This shows that first-time job-seekers are joining organised sector workforce in large numbers following their education and new jobs in organised sector are largely going to the youth of the country”, it said.
In September 2022, approximately 7.49 lakh net members exited, but rejoined EPFO by changing their jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO and opted to transfer their funds from the previous PF account to the current account instead of opting for final settlement.
The payroll data indicates that the number of members exiting from the coverage of EPFO have continuously declined during the past three months. A month-on-month comparison shows that around 9.65 per cent lesser members have exited EPFO during the month of September 2022 as compared to the previous month,” it said.
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data indicates that the enrolment of net female members has been 3.50 lakh in September 2022.
“A year-on-year comparison of enrolment data shows that net membership of females in organised workforce has increased with a growth rate of 6.98 per cent in September 2022 comparing with the net female membership during the previous year in September 2021. Among the total new members joining EPFO during the month, enrolment of the female workforce is recorded as 26.36 per cent”, the ministry said.
The ministry said that the state-wise payroll figures highlight that a month-on-month growing trend in net member addition was observed in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and others.
“The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi continue to remain in the lead by adding approximately 11.41 lakh net members during the month, which is 67.85 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups,” it said.
The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that mainly two categories i.e. ‘expert services’ (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc) and ‘trading-Commercial establishments’ constitute 48.52 per cent of total member addition during the month.
“Comparing industry-wise data with that of the previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, ‘Banks other than Nationalised Banks’, ‘Textiles’, ‘General Insurance’, ‘Hotels’, ‘Hospitals’ etc”, it further said. The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updating employee records is a continuous process.
The previous data, hence, gets updated every month. From April 2018, the EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period from September 2017 onwards. In monthly payroll data, the count of members joining EPFO for the first time through Aadhaar validated Universal Account Number (UAN), existing members exiting from coverage of EPFO and those who exited but rejoining as members, is taken to arrive at the net monthly payroll.
The EPFO is India’s principal organisation responsible for offering social security coverage to the organised sector workforce under the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. It offers a number of services to its members including a provident fund, pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension and insurance benefits to their families in case of the untimely death of the member. (ANI)