The government is planning to create 50-60 lakhs jobs by June 2021 through Atma Nirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana which was announced last week by FM Nirmala Sitharaman.
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data showed that around 20 lakh jobs were lost in the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic
A government official said, “We are targeting 5-6 million jobs by June next year. The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data shows that around 2 million jobs were lost in the initial months of the pandemic.”
The official further added, “The private companies will have to maintain a minimum net addition to their workforce each month from October 2020-June 2021 to get the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) subsidy for the new recruits, adding that the Centre will monitor the payroll of all such private firms,” speaking about the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Rozgar scheme.
The official said, “An employer will have to give jobs to two new employees if the workforce of the firm was less than 50 in September this year. And, if the workforce is 50 or above then at least five employees must be hired by the company.”
However, this is only applicable to employees with a monthly wage of up to Rs 15,000.
The official said firms will have to ensure the threshold for minimum job creation is maintained each month. The scheme would cover establishments registered with EPFO if they add new employees compared to the reference base (of employees) as in September 2020. The scheme would be operational till June 30, 2021.
About 80,000 companies had taken financial incentives of around Rs 300 crore from the government on account of such false beneficiaries. Thereafter, the EPFO recovered Rs 222 crore from employers by July 2019.
