The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has reduced its earlier estimate of the number of new members for September 2017 to May 2018 by 5.54 lakh, or 12.4%. The number of people who enrolled with the organisation in the period was 39.20 lakh, according to data released on Monday. The number was earlier estimated at 44.74 lakh.
Between September 2017 and June 2018, around 47.13 lakh jobs were created, the data showed. At 7.93 lakh, June had the highest number of new members enrolled to benefit from social security schemes in the last 10 months, the data showed. Data showed 2,53,466 were recorded in the age bracket of 18 to 21 years and 2,05,177 in the age group of 22 to 25, PTI reported.
The statement clarified that the data is “provisional as updation of employees records is a continuous process”. The EPFO stated that the numbers may include temporary employees.
The EPFO oversees the social security funds of employees in the organised or semi-organised sector. It runs three social security schemes: Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, 1952, Employees’ Deposit Linked Scheme, 1976, and Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995.
A study, titled Towards a Payroll Reporting in India, released in January had said that 70 lakh formal jobs would be created in the 2017-’18 financial year, and used estimated EPFO data to make this prediction. The study was cited by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech on February 1.
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