The government on Thursday claimed that the subscriber base of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has gone up by over 8.4 lakh during the first three months (April-June) of the current fiscal.
An establishment with more than 20 employees is required to register with the EPFO. The increase in subscriber base means more jobs. However, the current data is quite contrary to the one released by the Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy (CMIE) which said over 1.39 crore salaried jobs were lost during the April-June period.
According to official data, the Covid-19 pandemic had adversely affected the enrolments in the months of April and May. Despite the lockdown, around 0.20 lakh and 1.72 lakh net new subscribers were added to social security schemes of EPFO in April and May respectively. June saw an addition of 6.55 lakh net subscribers registering a 280 per cent month-on-month growth. The data published comprises all the new members who joined during the month and whose contribution was received.
“The subscriber base growth is on account of increased number of new subscribers, lower exits and higher rejoining by exited members,” a statement from Labour Ministry said. The new subscriber joining has increased roughly by 64 per cent from 3.03 lakh in May to 4.98 lakh in June. In addition, the exits from EPFO subscriber base declined by nearly 33 per cent from 4.45 lakh in May to 2.96 lakh in June.