EPFO adds 1.48 mn subscribers in January 2023, says labour ministry

Retirement fund body EPFO added 14.86 lakh subscribers in January 2023, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said on Monday.

Around 3.54 lakh members exited the fold of EPFO which was the "lowest exit" in the last four months, the ministry said.

Out of 14.86 lakh subscribers, around 7.77 lakh new members have come under the ambit of EPFO for the first time, the statement said.

The provisional payroll data released on Monday also highlighted that approximately 10.62 lakh members re-joined EPFO membership. These members switched their jobs and re-joined the establishments covered under EPFO and opted to transfer their accumulations instead of applying for final settlement thus, extending their social security protection.

Gender-wise analysis of payroll data showed that enrolment of net female members has been 2.87 lakh in January 2023, of which around 1.97 lakh female members are the new joinees. This shows that 68.61 per cent of the net female members have come under the fold of EPFO for the first time, the ministry said.

State-wise payroll figures highlighted Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Delhi added the highest number of EPFO members in January 2023.

These states together added 58.85 per cent of net member addition during the month. Of all the states, Maharashtra is leading by adding 22.73 per cent of overall member addition followed by Karnataka with 10.58 per cent during the month.

The classification of industry-wise payroll data indicates that Expert Services' (consisting of manpower suppliers, normal contractors, security services, miscellaneous activities etc.) constitute 40.64 per cent of total member addition during the month.

Comparing industry-wise data with that of the previous month, higher enrolments have been noticed in industries namely, automobile servicing', banks other than nationalized banks, restaurant', tea plantation' etc.

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

EPFO is a social security organization responsible for providing social security benefits in the form of provident, pension and insurance funds to the organized workforce of the country.

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