Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana- A great initiative of the Government of India

Objectives of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY)

As part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 package, the Central Government launched the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana (ABRY) to incentivize the creation of new employment opportunities during the COVID-19 recovery phase by providing assistance to the employers of establishments registered with EPFO to recruit unemployed persons including re-employment of those who were rendered unemployed during the pandemic.
The scheme proposes to incentivize employers, registered with EPFO, as well as newly Registered Establishments, for giving employment to new employees and re-employing persons from low wage bracket who lost their lobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under this scheme, the Central Government will pay both the employees' and employers' share of contribution payable under EPF& MP Act, 1052 or only the employees' share depending on the employment strength of the establishment, directly to the Universal Account Number (UAN) of eligible employees maintained by the EPFO.

Nature of incentives under ABRY

The Central Government will provide subsidy for twenty-four months  (2 years) in respect of eligible new employees at the following scale:

• Incentives for employers of EPFO registered establishments & their new employees with monthly wages less than Rs. 15,000/-.
• The incentive is in the form of payment of both employees & employer's contribution i.e. 24% of wages in respect of new employees in an establishment employing up to 1,000 employees & employees' EPF contribution i.e. 12% of wages in respect of new employees in establishments employing more than 1,000 employees.
• The eligible employer employing less than 1,000 employees will continue to get a subsidy of the employer's share even if the number of contributing EPF members with UAN exceeds 1,000 during the scheme period.
• The incentive is payable by the Central Government by upfront credit in the UANs of the new employees.

Validity of ABRY scheme

• The Scheme stands commenced from 1st October 2020 and shall remain open for registration of eligible employers and new employees up to 30th June 2021. However, the Central Government has extended the validity period of registration by 9 months up to 31st March 2022.
• The benefit under the ABRY scheme shall be available for a period of 24 months from the date of registration of the new employee.

Who can be beneficiary under the ABRY scheme

Beneficiaries:

"New employee" means any employee drawing wages less than Rs. 15,000 per month:

• Who was not working in any EPFO registered establishment and did not have a Universal Account Number (UAN) prior to 1st October 2020 who joins employment in any establishment on or after 01st October 2020 & up to 31st March 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.

Eligibility criteria for Establishments under ABRY

Note:

• Establishments working as contractors engaged in providing manpower to one or more principal employers shall not claim benefits of employer's share under this scheme if the same is claimed or received from the principal employer. Any such amount of employer's share claimed under this shall be liable to be refunded to the Central Government.
• If any establishment being a single legal entity is making compliance under various code numbers obtained from EPFO, then for the purpose of counting the number of 50/1000 employees, wherever applicable for eligibility criteria under this scheme, all the employees in the establishment as a whole shall be included.

Eligibility criteria for employees under the ABRY scheme

• Employers of eligible establishments have to register their new employees during the period from 01-10-2020 to 31-03-2022.
• The new employee should have an Aadhaar seeded Universal Account Number.
• The benefit shall be paid for the wage months in which the new employee continues to be in employment in any eligible establishment subject to a maximum of 24 months from the date of registration as a new employee.
• Any eligible new employee under this scheme shall become ineligible if his/her monthly wage exceeds Rs. 14,999/- at any point of time during this scheme period.
• Benefits under this scheme are not available to any new employee who is a registered beneficiary under PMRPY/ PMPRPY.

Procedure and Instructions for availing benefits under ABRY Scheme

To implement ABRY, EPFO has deployed an electronic facility on the 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.
•  The employer shall obtain and verify the declaration regarding previous membership from employees joining the establishment before registering such employees as "new employee" under ABRY.
• To avail benefits on a month-to-month basis, declaration & ECR in respect of all the employees is to be filed by the employers.
• The 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 employees' share of EPF contribution from the monthly wages of any new employee and disburse the wages without such deduction.
• The employers and the establishments shall be responsible for the correctness of all particulars submitted for claiming the ABRY benefits.

Disclaimer: The article is based upon the Author's opinion and is meant for informative purposes only. Readers are requested to act diligently and under consultation with a professional before applying the information contained in this article.

ABRY Guidelines

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ABRY Process Flow

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FAQ on ABRY

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