EPFO Adds 16.94 Lakh Net Subscribers In August

Retirement fund body EPFO net added 16.94 lakh new subscribers in August 2022, registering a 14.4 per cent rise as compared to the year-ago period, according to official data.
     
The provisional payroll data of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) released on Thursday highlighted that of the total 16.94 lakh members added during August 2022, around 9.87 lakh have come under the ambit of the EPFO for the first time.
     
Out of the 9.87 lakh new members added, approximately 58.32 per cent are from the age-group of 18-25 years.
     
This age-group signifies a crucial stage for an individual's potential in terms of earning capacity and joining organised workforce in large numbers following their education.
     
The data showed that during the month, approximately 7.07 lakh net members exited but rejoined EPFO by changing their jobs within the establishments covered by the EPFO and opted to transfer their funds from previous PF account to the current account instead of submitting claims for final settlement.
     
This may be attributed to various e-initiatives taken by EPFO for seamless and uninterrupted service delivery.
     
Gender-wise analysis of payroll data showed that enrolment of net female members stood at 3.63 lakh in August 2022.
     
Net membership of females in the organised workforce increased by 22.60 per cent compared to the year-ago month. 
     
Month-on-month growing trend in net member addition was observed in states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. 
     
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi continued to remain in lead by adding approximately 11.25 lakh net members during the month, which was 66.44 per cent of the total net payroll additions across all age groups.
     
As per classification of industry-wise payroll data, mainly two categories -- 'expert services' (consisting of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc) and 'trading - commercial establishments' constituted 47.03 per cent of total member additions during the month.
     
Comparing industry-wise data with that of the previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries like 'Electrical, Mechanical or General Engineering Products', 'Electronic Media Companies in Private Sector', 'University' and 'Financing Establishment', among others.
     
The payroll data is provisional, as updating employee records 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.
     
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 rejoined as members is taken to arrive at net monthly payroll.
     
The EPFO's payroll is part of the organized sector workforce for those establishments which are covered under the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.
     
EPFO provides provident fund and pension benefits to the members on their retirement and family pension and insurance benefits to their families in case of untimely death of the member.