Retirement fund body EPFO saw a 27.79 per cent growth amounting to 13.36 lakh subscribers in January compared to last year, according to the payroll data released on Saturday, providing a perspective on formal sector employment amid the pandemic.

"The provisional payroll data of EPFO published on March 20, 2021 highlights a growing trend of subscriber base with the addition of 13.36 lakh net subscribers during January 2021," a labour ministry statement said.
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It stated that the data reflects a growth of 24 per cent for January 2021 over December last year.

"Year-on-year comparison of payroll data indicates an increase of 27.79 per cent in net subscribers as compared to the corresponding period last year (January 2020), indicating a return to the pre-COVID levels of subscriber growth for EPFO," it said.

Despite the pandemic, EPFO added around 62.49 lakh subscribers during the first tens month of the ongoing fiscal year, the data showed.

During 2019-20, the number of net new subscribers rose to 78.58 lakh as compared to 61.12 lakh in the preceding fiscal.

The number of net enrolments with the body was revised downwards to 10.81 lakh for December 2020 from earlier provisional estimates of 12.53 lakh for the month released in February 2021.

Since April 2018, EPFO has been releasing payroll data covering the period September 2017 onwards.

According to the latest data, net new enrolments in April were in the negative zone at (-) 2,55,559 against the figure of (-) 2,35,911 released in February. This means that the number of members who exited the EPFO subscription was more than those who joined or rejoined the scheme.

In July, provisional showed that net new enrolments for April stood at 1 lakh, which was revised down to 20,164 in August and further lowered to (-) 61,807 in September, (-) 1,04,608 in October, (-)1,49,248 in November, (-) 1,79,685 in December 2020 and (-) 2,11,073 released in January 2021.