EPFO records 655,000 net new enrolments in June, up from 172,000 in May

Net new enrolments with retirement fund body EPFO rose to 655,000 in June from 172,000 during May 2020, according to 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 had shown that net new enrolments stood at 318,000 in May this year. The figure has now been revised to 1,72,174.

The net new enrolments with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had dropped to 572,000 in March 2020 from 1.02 million in February, as per the payroll data released in May.

Latest data released on Thursday showed that net new enrolments in April were just 20,164 compared to the provisional figure of 133,000 released in July.

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 7.86 million as compared to 6.12 million in the preceding fiscal, according to the payroll data released on Thursday.

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-June 2020, the number of net new subscribers was around 1.63 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).