The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is looking to cover 10 lakh more industries, according to Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar.
Laying the foundation for a EPFO regional office building in Salem, at a function held here on Tuesday, the Minister said about 10 lakh units are already covered under EPFO.
Only those industries that have more than 20 workers can be covered under EPFO. Over 80 lakh industries are registered for GST and there is scope to extend the benefit to workers in more industries.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana, the Government has allocated ₹1,000 crore. For employers (existing and new) who enrol new workers under EPFO, the government will pay the employer’s share of PF for three years under this scheme. So far, about seven lakh employees have been enrolled under this scheme. The EPFO has introduced several online services and will go paperless in one year, he added.
Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, M. Sathiyavathy said the housing scheme for employees, which has been revised, has lot of response. So far, about 25 employers have come forward across the country. Under this, the employer facilitates construction of houses for employees if a group of workers form a society for the same.
The EPFO will extend 90 % of the PF amount of the employee for this. It has also tied up with HUDCO to provide loans. More number of eligible workers should be enrolled under social security schemes. Under the amnesty scheme introduced between January and June this year, about one crore employees were registered under PF, she said.
Additional Central PF Commissioner M.P. Varghese said that after restructuring of EPFO, Coimbatore is a zonal office, covering 27 districts that come under six regional offices, including Salem. There are 58 lakh subscribers and 33,000 establishments in this zone. The regional office building in Salem, coming up at a cost of ₹ 22.26 crore (including land cost), will be completed in a year.
