Coronavirus crisis: Govt may extend PF benefits to more companies to prevent job losses

The government might extend the PF benefit scheme to more companies, irrespective of their employee headcounts. This means it may soon pay the share of provident fund of both employer and employees in more companies than announced earlier, The Economic Times reported citing sources, adding the government could soon make announcement on this.

As part of the of Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the Centre would pay the employee provident fund (EPF) contribution both of employers and employees (12 per cent each) for the next three months. The FM's announcement was applicable to all those establishments having employed up to 100 employees and about 90 per cent of which earn Rs 15,000 per month.

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"The government is working out the additional financial implication under the two scenarios--doing away with cap altogether or raising it substantially, based on which a decision would be taken," the daily reported an official as saying.

Amid rising number of cases in India, and no clarity on lifting lockdown measures, there's huge pressure on the government to ease the burden on employers and prevent job losses, salary cuts.

Besides, the Ministry of Labour has also started collecting data on salary reductions and job cuts on a daily basis, and a weekly report will be submitted to the Prime Minister's Office to note the unemployment scenario in the country.

India reported 36 more COVID-19 deaths in past 24 hours taking the toll to 543 while the total number of confirmed cases have crossed the 17,000. According to latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are 17,265 confirmed coronavirus cases in India currently, including 14,175 active cases, while 2,546 have been cured and discharged and 1 migrated.

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