Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana

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The Union Cabinet has approved the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana which is one of the schemes announced by the Finance Minister under Atmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0 in November 2020

Key features of the scheme

“Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana” is being launched to boost employment in the formal sector and incentivize creation of new employment opportunities during the Covid recovery phase under Atmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0.

Duration of the scheme: The scheme is to be operational for the period 2020-2023.

Beneficiaries under the scheme

An employee drawing monthly wage of less than Rs. 15000/- who was not working in any establishment registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) before 1st October, 2020 and did not have a Universal Account Number or EPF Member account number prior to 1st October 2020
Any EPF member possessing Universal Account Number (UAN) drawing monthly wage of less than Rs. 15000/- who made exit from employment during Covid pandemic from 01.03.2020 to 30.09.2020 and did not join employment in any EPF covered establishment up to 30.09.2020.

Which establishments are eligible under the scheme?

Establishments registered with EPFO if they add new employees compared to reference base of employees as in September, 2020 as under:

minimum of two new employees if the reference base is 50 employees or less.
minimum of five new employees if the reference base is more than 50 employees.

Benefits to establishments

Government of India will provide subsidy for two years in respect of new employees engaged on or after 1st October, 2020 and upto 30th June, 2021 at following scale

Establishments employing up to 1000 employees: Employee’s contributions (12% of Wages) & Employer’s contributions (12% of wages) totalling 24% of wages
Establishments employing more than 1000 employees: Only Employee’s EPF contributions (12% of EPF wages)

The subsidy support to get credited upfront in Aadhaar seeded EPFO Universal Account Number (UAN) of eligible new employees.

What is the Universal Account Number(UAN)?

UAN is a 12-digit unique number assigned to every employee contributing to the EPF.
It is generated and allotted by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and authenticated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
On 1 October 2014, the government of India launched Universal Account Number for Employees covered by EPFO to enable PF number portability

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (abbreviated to EPFO), is an organisation tasked to assist the Central Board of Trustees.
Employees’ Provident Fund is a statutory body established by the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
EPFO assists the Central Board in administering a compulsory contributory Provident Fund Scheme, a Pension Scheme and an Insurance Scheme for the workforce engaged in the organised sector in India.
The EPFO’s apex decision making body is the Central Board of Trustees (CBT)

Source: PRS India & PIB

Tags: Prelims