PF (Provident Fund) Subscribers Increase Over 80% In May From A Year Ago

Retirement fund body EPFO added 16.82 lakh new subscribers, in May 2022, over 80 per cent more than 9.2 lakh enrolled in the year-ago month, according to official data.

The provisional payroll data of EPFO released on Wednesday showed an increase of 7.62 lakh net subscribers in May 2022 as compared to the net subscription in May 2021 last year, the labour ministry said in a statement.

The EPFO had added 9.2 lakh net new subscribers in May 2021, it said.

Out of the total 16.82 lakh, subscribers added during May 2022, around 9.60 lakh new members have been covered under the ambit of EPF & MP Act, 1952 for the first time.

Approximately 7.21 lakh net subscribers exited but rejoined EPFO by changing their jobs within the establishments covered by EPFO and opted to continue their membership under the EPF Scheme by transferring their funds instead of applying for final PF withdrawal, it stated.

The new enrolment during the month is higher than the monthly average recorded during the last fiscal.

Age-wise comparison of payroll data indicates that the age group of 22-25 years has registered the highest number of net enrolments with 4.33 lakh additions during May 2022. This shows that many first-time job seekers are joining the organised sector workforce in large numbers, the ministry explained.

State-wise comparison of payroll figures highlights that the establishments covered in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi remain in the lead by adding approximately 11.34 lakh net subscribers during the month, which is 67.42 per cent of the total net payroll addition across all age groups.

Gender-wise analysis indicates that net female payroll addition is approximately 3.42 lakh during the month, and the share of female enrolment is 20.39 per cent of the net subscriber addition during May 2022.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that mainly two categories, i.e. 'expert services' (consisting of workforce agencies, private security agencies and small contractors etc.) and 'Trading-Commercial establishments constitute 50.51 per cent of the total subscriber addition during the month.

Apart from this, a growing trend has been noted in other industries like 'Building & Construction industry', 'Garments Making', 'Financing Establishment', 'Hotel' and 'Íron and Steel' during the month.

The payroll data is provisional since the data generation is a continuous exercise, as the updation of employee records is a continuous process. The previous data hence gets updated every month.

From April 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards, it stated.

The EPFO's payroll is a part of the organised sector workforce for those establishments which are covered under the provisions of the Employees' Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

The same is calculated in terms of the number of establishments which comes under the purview of EPFO and the number of subscribers whose contributions are being deposited by filing monthly ECRs (Electronic Challan-cum-Return) by the employers.