EPFO adds 1.53 mn subscribers in January, up by 21% from Dec 21

Retirement fund body EPFO added 15.29 lakh subscribers on a net basis in January 2022, an increase of over 21 per cent compared to 12.60 lakh in December 2021, according to the latest payroll data.

“The provisional payroll data of EPFO has been released today, i.e., 20th March 2022, which highlights that EPFO has added 15.29 lakh net subscribers during January 2022. Month-on-month comparison of payroll data also indicates an increase of 2.69 lakh net subscribers addition in January 2022, as compared to the net additions during the previous month of December 2021,” a labour ministry statement said on Sunday.

As per the data, 12.60 lakh net new members were added in December 2021.

Of the total 15.29 lakh net subscribers added in January, around 8.64 lakh new members have been registered under the social security ambit of the EPF & MP Act, 1952, according to the statement.

Approximately 6.65 lakh net subscribers exited the scheme but re-joined EPFO by continuing their membership with EPFO instead of opting for final withdrawal.

The payroll data also reflects a declining trend in the number of members exited since July 2021, the statement said.

Age-wise comparison of payroll data revealed that the age group of 18-25 years has recorded the highest number of net enrolment with 6.90 lakh additions in January 2022, around 45.11 per cent of total net subscribers added in the month.

The age group of 29-35 years registered a healthy addition of around 3.23 lakh net enrolments. This indicates that first-time job seekers are joining the organised sector workforce in large numbers and signifies a crucial stage for an individual’s potential in terms of earning capacity.

State-wise comparison of payroll figures highlights that the establishments covered in Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are leading by adding approximately 9.33 lakh subscribers during the month, which is around 61 per cent of total net payroll addition across all age groups.

Gender-wise analysis indicates that net female payroll addition during the month is approximately 3.20 lakh. The share of female enrolment is about 21 per cent of the total net subscriber’s addition in January 2022, with a rise of 57,722 net enrolments over the previous month.

Industry-wise payroll data shows that the ‘expert services’ category (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc) constitutes 39.95 per cent of total subscriber addition during the month.

The growing trend in net payroll additions has been noted in industries like expert services, engineering contractors, trading (commercial establishments) and building & construction industry etc.

The EPFO has recorded net new subscribers of 1.02 crore from April to January this fiscal year. It had added net new subscribers 77.08 lakh in 2020-21 and 78.58 lakh in 2019-20 and 61.12 lakh in 2018-19.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as updation of employee record is a continuous process.

The previous data hence gets updated every month. From the month of April-2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards.

The EPFO is committed to extending social security benefits in the form of Provident, Pension and Insurance Funds to the organised workforce of the country, covered under the aegis of Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

With extensive use of social media nowadays, EPFO is also available on Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook to help the subscribers and address their issues, the statement added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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