Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana

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

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

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries (new employees) under Scheme

• An employee drawing monthly wage of less than Rs. 15000/- who o was not working in any EPFO registered establishment and did not have a Universal
  Account Number (UAN) prior to 01st October, 2020 who joins employment in any establishment on or after 01.10.2020 up to 31.03.2022 and who is allotted Aadhaar validated UAN 
• Any EPF member, already allotted with UAN, who made exit from employment during the period from 01.03.2020 to 30.09.2020 (Covid Pandemic) from any establishment and who joins in any establishment on or after 01.10.2020 and up to 31.03.2022.
• The incentive is payable by the Central Government by upfront credit in the UANs of the new employees.

Validity Period:

• for registration of eligible employers and new employees
  • From 1st October, 2020
  • up to 31st March, 2022
• For payment of incentive in form of EPF contributions - 24 Wage months from date of registration of new employees

Eligibility criteria for Establishments

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

Benefits

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 Account (UAN) of eligible new employee.

Procedure and Instructions for availing benefits under this Scheme

To implement ABRY, EPFO has deployed electronic facility on Employer’s portal

• The employer has to update Form 5A, disclose the reference base of employees through a link in the Employer’s login on EPFO Unified Portal to register under ABRY.
• Employer to obtain and verify declaration regarding previous membership from employees joining the establishment before registering such employee as “new employee” under ABRY.
• To avail benefits on month to month basis, declaration & ECR in respect of all employees is to be filed by employers
• Employer has to file one Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) in respect of all employees including new employees for each wage month within 60 days of the close of that wage month. However, the employer shall be liable for belated submission of ECR and consequent liability of interest due u/s 7Q.
• Any revision/correction/modification in such ECR is not allowed to claim any enhanced benefit at any future date
• The employer shall not make any deduction towards employee’s share of EPF contribution from the monthly wages of any new employee and disburse the wages without such deduction.
• Establishments working as contractors engaged in providing manpower to one or more principal employers shall not claim benefit of employers’ share under this Scheme if the same is claimed or received from the principal employer.
• Employers and Establishments shall be responsible for the correctness of all particulars submitted for claiming ABRY benefit.

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