PUNE: Union
minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises
Giriraj Singh on Saturday failed to substantiate the government's
claim of
creating 70 lakh
jobs in the current fiscal.
"I can say this with conviction that if you go by the enumeration in the employee provident fund data, 70 lakh new formal jobs have been created in the current year alone," Singh said while addressing a gathering of MSME entrepreneurs in the city.
When pointed out that the EPFO enumeration figure was based on government's push to get more employees under its net, Singh offered no response. He also did not answer when asked how many new employees were added and how many were enlisted from existing jobs.
The government has been under scanner for not being able to create enough jobs - a key poll promise. In fact, in the beginning of 2017, the government offered an amnesty scheme to employers who had not got their employees into the social security fold despite being eligible for it. This prompted a lot of employers to get their employees registered. An additional one crore employees were added as a result of the amnesty scheme that pertained to non-contribution for over seven years.
Many employers, especially in the MSME sector, do not pay much heed to this statutory requirement.
Singh exhorted the MSMEs to post a complaint on the Udyog Aadhaar portal if they do not receive money from their buyers (large companies) after more than 45 days. He sought to put the onus of recovering money from large companies on small companies.
