EPFO adds 9.20 lakh net subscribers in the month of May, 2021: Payroll data

New Delhi, Jul 21 (KNN) The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added around 9.2 lakh net subscribers during May 2021 despite the crisis of second wave surge of COVID-19 pandemic across the country.

According to the provisional payroll data, the EPFO has been able to make a cumulative subscribers base of 20.20 lakh in the first two months of the current financial year. 

The data also indicates that the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic on payroll addition is not as severe as it was for the first wave.

''This may be attributed to the timely support of the Government of India in the form of ABRY and PMGKY schemes along with various e-initiatives taken by EPFO including online claims submission, auto-claim settlement, online transfer of PF account, strengthened grievance redressal and services on mobile devices etc,'' an official statement said on Tuesday.

Of the total 9.20 lakh net subscribers added during the month, around 5.73 lakh new members have come under the ambit of Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme for the first time.

During the month, around 3.47 lakh net subscribers exited but then re-joined EPFO by changing their jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO and opted to retain membership under the Scheme, through transfer of funds rather than coming for final withdrawal of their PF accumulations, EPFO said.

As regards the age-wise comparison of payroll data, the age-group of 22-25 years has registered the highest number of net enrolments with around 2.39 lakh additions during the month of May, 2021. This is followed by the age-group of 29-35 with around 1.90 lakh net enrolments. Gender-wise analysis indicates that the share of female’s enrolment is approximately 21.77 per cent of total net subscriber’s addition during the month.

State-wise comparison of payroll shows that establishments registered with the states of Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are still in the forefront by adding approximately 5.45 lakh subscribers during the month, which is around 59.29 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

During the current financial year, these 5 states have added around 11.83 lakh subscribers out of 20.20 lakh subscribers added so far.

Industry-wise payroll data indicates that ‘expert services’ category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) constitutes 46.77 per cent of total subscribers’ addition during the month.