The provisional payroll data published by Employees' Provident Fund Orgsation (EPFO) on July 20 has revealed that the subscriber base has grown by 3.18 lakh new net members during May 2020, registered a whopping 218 per cent month on month growth.
Despite the lockdown, around 1 lakh net new subscribers were added to the social security schemes of EPFO in April 2020. The data published comprises of all the new members who have joined during the month and whose contribution is received, EPFO said in an official release.
"The subscriber base growth is on account of an increased number of new subscribers, lower exits and higher rejoining by exited members. The new subscriber joining has increased roughly by 66 per cent from 1.67 lakh in April to 2.79 lakh in May 2020. In addition, the exits from EPFO subscriber base declined by nearly 20 per cent from 2.97 lakh in April to 2.36 lakh in May 2020," it added.
The number of members who exited and then rejoined indicates the switching of jobs by subscribers within the establishments covered by EPFO. This has also increased by approximately 19 per cent for the month of May 2020 over April 2020, with more subscribers choosing to retain membership by transferring funds rather than opting for final settlement, the release added.
Further, category-wise analysis of industry indicates that building and construction sector, hotels, transport; electrical, mechcal or general engineering products; education and textiles were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the month of April 2020.
Most of these sectors had registered negative enrolment for April 2020. Expert services industry classification that added almost 4 lakh members every month during the pre-COVID-19 period, had added only around eighty thousand members during April 2020. Expert services predominantly consist of manpower agencies, private security agencies and small contractors.
All these sectors, except the education sector which is still affected due to lockdown continuing in schools and colleges, have shown positive growth for the month of May 2020. Expert services have recorded a 125 per cent month on month growth by adding around 1.8 lakh net new subscribers in May 2020, the official release stated.
New establishments registered with EPFO also witnessed a growth of around 72 per cent with 8,367 new establishments registering in May compared to 4,853 establishments in April 2020. Similarly, in terms of establishments filing first ECR, the payroll data registered a growth of around 98 per cent for the month of May as compared with April 2020.
EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the orgsed/semi-orgsed sector in India and has more than 6 crore active members. The payroll data is provisional as updation of employee records is a continuous process and it gets updated in subsequent months.
( With inputs from ANI )