EPFO records 318,000 new enrolments in May amid Covid-19-induced lockdown

Net new enrolments with retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) rose to 318,000 in May this year from 100,000 the orevious month, show its latest payroll data, providing a perspective on employment in the formal sector amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Provisional payroll data released by the EPFO last month showed that net new enrolments stood at 133,000 in April this year. The figure has now been revised down to 100,825.

The net new enrolments with the EPFO had dropped to 572,000 in March 2020 from 1,021,000 in February, according to the payroll data released in May.

The net new enrolments with the EPFO hover around 700,000 every month on an average.

During 2019-20, the number of net new subscribers rose to 7,858,000 compared to 6,112,000 in the preceding fiscal, according to the latest payroll data released on Monday.

The EPFO has been releasing the payroll data of new subscribers since April 2018, covering the period starting from September 2017.

The data also showed that during September 2017-May 2020, the number of net new subscribers was around 1.59 crore.

EPFO said the payroll data is provisional as updation of employees' records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months.

"The government announced lockdown on March 24, 2020. Accordingly ECR (PF returns) filing date for March month was extended to May 15, 2020," the EPFO had said in May while releasing the data.

In June, it had said, "The due date for submission of ECRs for April 2020 has been extended in view of the lockdown."

The estimates are net of the new members enrolled, members exited and rejoined during the month, as per records of EPFO.

The estimates may include temporary employees whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year, it has said.

The EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organised/ semi-organised sector in India. It has more than 6 crore active members (with at least one month contribution during the year).