Maha tops chart with max Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana beneficiaries

Maharashtra has topped the list of states with maximum number of beneficiaries under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY), followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, Parliament was informed on Monday.

As on December 4, 2021, as many as 6,49,560 beneficiaries were recorded in Maharashtra, followed by Tamil Nadu (5,35,615), Gujarat (4,44,741) and Karnataka (3,07,164), Minister of State for Labour & Employment Rameswar Teli said in written reply to Lok Sabha.

In Maharashtra, the beneficiaries have been provided a total of Rs 409.72 crore under the scheme to new employees of 17,524 establishments.

In Tamil Nadu, the beneficiaries were provided Rs 300.46 crore under the scheme to new employees of 12,803 establishments till December 4, 2021.

In Gujarat, funds to the tune of Rs 278.63 crore have been provided to the new employees of 12,379 establishments and in Karnataka, the beneficiaries were provided a total of Rs 221.63 crore under the scheme to the new employees of 8,024 establishments.

The government had launched ABRY to incentivize employment generation in Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) registered establishments during COVID-19 for a period from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022.

Under the ABRY, the government is paying both employees' and employers' contributions of 24 per cent of wages (12 per cent of wages for each) in respect of establishments having 1,000 employees and employees' contribution of 12 of wages to establishments employing more than 1,000 employees, the House was informed.

As on December 4, 2021, employment opportunities have been created for 39.73 lakh new employees and benefits of Rs 2612.10 crore were credited upfront in their accounts.

The minister also told the House that the average time taken to process the claims of the EPFO subscribers was 7.3 days during the current fiscal till December 6, 2021 during 2021-22.

It was 8.4 days in 2020-21, and 11.5 days in 2019-20.

Teli also told the House that upgradation of service delivery system in the EPFO is an ongoing exercise.

During the last four years, an estimated 535.71 lakh EPF accounts have been amalgamated/merged in Universal Account Number (UAN) seeded with Aadhaar.

To further enhance and improve service delivery and grievance redressal, EPFO has been engaging in strengthening of the centralized IT system in phases through integration of separate databases of the field level and payment systems, he stated.