State Bank of India’s (SBI) Economic Research Department’s report, SBI Ecowrap, on Tuesday, said that the total payroll generation of EPFO and NPS is more than 5.2 crore during the last four fiscal years. The paper analysed the EPFO payroll data between the financial year 2019-20 (FY20) and the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) to say that 4.86 crores of net new EPF subscribers were added during the period.
“This number, however, consists of new payroll (first payroll), second payroll (rejoined/resubscribed members) and formalised payrolls. We subsequently estimated the net new payroll (first job/fresh job) adjusted for re-joined/re-subscribed members and formalization (based on ECR data). As per our calculation, the actual net new payroll was 2.27 crore during FY20 to FY23. The first job is 47 per cent of the total net new payroll,” the report said.
The second job or the exited subscribers who re-joined stood at 2.17 crore during the 4-year period ended FY23. The increase in formalisation was at 42 lakh in these years, the report said.
“If we see the Q1 EPFO payroll data of FY24, the trend is quite encouraging. Already 44 lakh net new EPF subscribers joined, of which first payroll were 19.2 lakh,” the report noted.
Adding that if this trend continues for the whole fiscal then in FY24, the net new payroll will cross the 160 lakh mark (highest-ever) with the first payroll in the range of 70-80 lakh.
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“NPS data indicates that 8.24 lakh new subscribers in FY23, of which State Government payrolls of 4.64 lakh, followed by Non Government of 2.30 lakh and 1.29 in central Government. In the last 4-years, around 31 lakh new subscribers joined in NPS,” the SBI Ecowarp said.
Meanwhile, the current EPFO data showed a significant decline in the revision of the number of members who have rejoined or resubscribed in the first quarter of the current financial year, the report said. This would mean more people might be deciding to stick to their current employment. Additionally, the share of women’s payroll was around 27 per cent.
“To enable the increase of women in labour force, we recommend that Bank Sakhis hired under National Rural Livelihood Mission /NRLM may be considered for appointing as Banking Correspondents, as they are well versed with routine bank operations and possess mandated IIBF certification. Policy may also be framed to mandatorily recruit at least 30 per cent of the total workforce as women Banking Correspondents, particularly in locations where access and usage of the accounts by women is low. This will clearly bridge the gender gap,” the report noted.