The Union government said on January 17 that the number of employees benefiting from the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY), the scheme for generating new employment by incentivising employers, has crossed the 1 crore mark.

Under the scheme, the government is paying full employers’ contribution of 12 per cent (towards both Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ Pension Scheme) for three years in respect of new employees who have been registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on or after April 1, 2016, with salary up to Rs 15,000 per month.

“PMRPY, the flagship scheme of the Central government for employment generation, has crossed the milestone of 1 crore beneficiaries as on January 14, 2019,” the labour ministry said in a statement.

PMRPY was announced on August 7, 2016, and is being implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Employment through the EPFO.

“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 PMRPY. The number of establishments who have benefited during the implementation of the scheme is 1.24 lakh,” the statement said.

It said the entire system is online and Aadhaar-based with no human interface in the implementation of the scheme.

“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 per cent 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,” the ministry said.

“A direct benefit 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,” it added.