Why in News?

• The Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY), the flagship scheme of the Union Government for employment generation, crossed the milestone of one crore beneficiaries on January 14, 2019.

Highlights:

• The scheme was announced on August 07, 2016 and is being implemented by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO).
• Under the scheme, Government is paying full employers’ contribution of 12 percent towards Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ Pension Scheme both for a period of 3 years.
• The new employees who are registered with the EPFO on or after April 1, 2016, with salary up to Rs. 15,000 per month are covered under the scheme.
• During 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 (up to January 15, 2019), 33,031, 30,27,612, and 69,49,436 beneficiaries respectively, have been enrolled with EPFO under the PMRPY.
• The numbers of establishments who have been benefitted during the implementation of the scheme are 1.24 lakh.

Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY):

• The Scheme has been designed to incentivise employers for generation of new employment, where the Union Government pays the full employer’s contribution towards EPF and EPS with effect from April 1, 2018. Earlier the benefit was applicable for employer’s contribution towards EPS only.
• PMRPY has a dual benefit – on the one hand, the employer is incentivised for increasing the employee base in the establishment through payment of EPF contribution of 12 percent of wage, which otherwise would have been borne by the employer, and on the other hand, a large number of workers find jobs in such establishments.
• A direct benefit of the scheme is that these workers have access to social security benefit through Provident Fund, Pension and Death Linked Insurance.
• The terminal date for registration of beneficiaries through an establishment under the PMRPY is March 31, 2019. The entire system of availing of the scheme is online and AADHAR based with no human interface in the implementation of the scheme.