The payroll data by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, released on Friday, shows net new additions under the EPFO was higher by 13.7% in April compared to March at 1.12 million, but fell for ESIC and NPS compared to March.
The new additions under ESIC were down by 14.7% in April compared to March at 12.2 million while NPS subscriber base in April fell by 20.2% compared to 69,998 new additions in March.
The report, titled ‘Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective – April 2021’, said that since the number of subscribers is from various sources, there are elements of overlap and the estimates are not additive. Further, the report gives different perspectives on the levels of employment in the formal sector and does not measure employment at a holistic level, it further said.
As per the report, 9,283 central government employees joined NPS in April while 33,458 state government employees enrolled for the scheme and 13,103 corporate sector employees joined in April.
Of the 1.04 million subscribers added under ESIC, 0.83 million were men and 0.21 were women workers. Further, out of the 1.27 million net subscribers added during the month, around 0.68 million new members have come into the social security coverage of EPFO for the first time while 5.86 lakh net subscribers exited and then rejoined EPFO by changing their jobs.
Mospi has been bringing out the employment related statistics in the formal sector covering the period September 2017 onwards, using information on the number of subscribers who have subscribed under three major schemes, namely the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme, the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme and the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
While EPF is applicable to establishments having more than 20 workers earning wages up to Rs 15,000 a month, ESIC applies to firms and establishments with 10 or more employees with wages up to Rs 21,000 a month.
