The Centre announced on Sunday that 27 establishments have surrendered their exemption status in the last two years, adding approximately 30,000 employees and a sum of Rs 1,688.82 crore to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) fund. These establishments opted to have EPFO directly manage their employees’ Provident Fund (PF) accounts, enabling them to focus on their core business activities while benefiting from improved services.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment highlighted that the EPFO has implemented multiple measures over the past year to streamline compliance procedures for establishments exempted under the EPF Act. The ministry noted that EPFO’s services to both establishments and members are continuously improving, citing faster claim settlement, higher rates of return, strong monitoring, and ease of engagement.
To manage their employees’ PF corpus, establishments must seek exemption under Section 17 of the EPF Act. As of March 31, 2023, there were 1,002 exempted establishments managing a corpus of Rs 3,52,000 crore for 31,20,323 members.
