‘Amnesty scheme’ extended to June 30

Friday, June 9, 2017 
Visakhapatnam

An ‘Amnesty scheme’ to enroll left-over workers in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organization and ESI has been announced by the government.

ESI Central Board member Ch.Ramakotaiah said that failure to make use of the amnesty scheme would result in hefty penalty particularly in the construction sector and enrolling workers would result in a number of benefits to them. If employers failed to enroll in PF or ESI, the penalty would be deducted directly from their bnk accounts, he said.

Workers in unorganized sectors like auto drivers and fishermen could form societies and avail themselves of the benefits of medical treatment, salary during recovery from accidents and pension for family members in case of death by enrolling in ESI.

He said that so far 8,500 fishermen were enrolled and there was scope to enroll 70,000. The membership had gone up to 2 lakh to 4 lakh in the north coastal districts due to the efforts of the officials, he said.

Regional PF Commissioner Indira Tirumalaraju said a special drive had been taken up and under the EPF Act, a total 47,000 employees entitled to PF were enrolled against a target of 77,500. She said that from July 1, EPFO officials would act against erring employees and 25% penalty, employee and employer contribution would also be collected, she said.