By TIOL News Service  

NEW DELHI, FEB 20, 2021:THE net subscriber base for the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) in December, 2020 grew 44 per cent over the previous month with 12.54 lakh new employees registering for the social security scheme.

As per the provisional data released by the Labour Ministry, a year-on-year comparison of payroll data shows a 24 per cent growth for December, 2020, indicating a return to the pre-COVID levels of subscriber growth for the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation ( EPFO).

"Despite COVID-19 pandemic, EPFO added around 53.70 lakh subscribers during the first three quarters of the current financial year," said the ministry.

The third quarter (Q3) of 2020-21 registered a robust 22 per cent growth over Q2 in terms of new registrants.

In December, 2020 around 8.04 lakh new members signed up for EPF for the first time, while roughly 4.5 lakh members exited and then rejoined, indicating switching of jobs within establishments covered by the scheme.

"An increase in the number of members rejoining indicates that workers are returning to their jobs with decline in active Covid-19 cases in India. Further, auto-transfer facility initiated by EPFO enabled hassle-free transfer of PF balance from the old account to the new account on change of job ensuring continuity of membership in many cases," said the ministry.

Age-wise analysis indicates the addition of over 6 lakh subscribers in the 18-25 bracket contributing around 49.19 per cent of the new additions.

Statistics across the States show Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have continued to lead in employment generation by adding 29.12 lakh net subscribers out of 53.70 lakh during the 2020-21 financial year across all the age-groups.

Industry-wise analysis indicates that 'expert services' category, which primarily includes manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors, has added 26.94 lakh subscribers in the April-December 2020-21 period.