Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Saturday, August 21 that the government will pay the provident fund (PF) share of employer and employee till 2022 for those people who lost their jobs, but were again called back to work in small-scale jobs in the formal sector and whose units are registered in the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
The Finance Minister also announced that if in a district, more than 25,000 migrant workers work in the informal sector return to their native places, will receive benefits from 16 government schemes for employment.
In 2020, the government increased the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) budget from Rs 60,000 crore to around Rs 1 lakh crore amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The provisional payroll data of retirement body EPFO released on Friday, August 20, highlighted a growing trend with as many as 12.83 lakh net payroll additions during June 2021.
The impact of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic waned in June, with respect to payroll data, resulting in huge growth compared to April and May this year, according to EPFO. The data's month-on-month analysis highlighted an increase of 5.09 lakh additions in net subscribers during June this year, compared to May 2021.
Meanwhile, in November last year, the government announced the employment incentive scheme - Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, under which it provides subsidy for the PF contribution for adding new employees to establishments registered with the EPFO.
As part of the scheme, the government pays PF contribution for workers with wages up to Rs 15,000. The contribution of 24 per cent for both employers and employees for those establishments employing up to 1,000 employees will be borne by the government.
For those establishments employing more than 1,000 employees, 12 per cent of the employees' share will be contributed by the government.
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