Employees Provident Fund Organization
The Indian Parliament established the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization to offer social security to Indian workers. This law was enacted by the Employee Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provision Act of 1952. The Ministry of Labor and Employment of the Indian government is responsible for running Employees Provident Fund Organization. In terms of customers and financial activities, it is one of the biggest social security agencies in the world.
After the Employees’ Provident Funds Ordinance was passed on November 15, 1951, the Employees’ Provident Fund was created. It was replaced by the Employees’ Provident Funds Act of 1952. The Central Board of Trustees, Employees’ Provident Fund, a tripartite board composed of representatives from the federal, state, and local governments, employers, and employees, is responsible for overseeing the administration of the Employees’ Provident Fund Act and Schemes.
Formal sector employment has seen a revival, with first time entrants to the Employees’ Provident Fund remaining above the 1 million mark for the second consecutive month in July 2023.
According to the provisional Employees' Provident Fund Organization payroll data, 1.02 million new members joined the scheme in July. This was marginally lower than close to 1.04 million first time subscribers in June 'but' the data is provisional, tends to be revised upwards in most months.
“The data indicates that around 1.02 million new members have enrolled during July, which is the highest since July,” said an official release by the ministry of labor and employment on Wednesday. First-time subscribers to the Employees Provident Fund Organization stood at 0.92 million in April, 'but' that number has been rising every month and was at 0.93 million in May.
In all, 1.87 million were added to the Employees Provident Fund Organization in the month of July 2023. “The addition during the month is the highest since first publishing of Employees Provident Fund Organization payroll data from April 2018 covering the period of September 2017 onwards,” the release said, adding that a growing trend is continued since last three months with an increase of around 85,932 net members over the previous month of June 2023. The data indicated that about 1.27 million members exited but rejoined Employees Provident Fund Organization, which is the highest in the last 12 months, the ministry said. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under Employees Provident Fund Organization and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement, thus, extending their social security protection.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organization payroll data is considered a high frequency measure for formal sector job creation in the economy. New entrants to the Employees Provident Fund Organization had been above the 1 million mark in the first half of last fiscal, but had begun to decline from October 2022 and had remained less than 1 million ever since. According to the release, majority of new member's joining Employees Provident Fund Organization in July were in the age-group of 18 to 25 years, constituting roughly 58.45 percent of total new member's addition during the month. “This shows an increasing trend in youth enrollment, who are mostly first-time jobseekers joining the organized sector workforce of the country,” it said.
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