Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana: Govt disburses 11% of its target benefit amount

The funds disbursed under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) -- a key scheme rolled out during the pandemic to generate jobs -- amounts to only 11 per cent or Rs 2,612 crore of Rs 22,810 crore targeted to be spent till March 31, 2024. 

Maharastra, followed by Gujarat, and Karnataka, tops the list of states with the highest number of beneficiaries, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Rameswar Teli, told Lok Sabha.  

There are 1,17,016 beneficiary establishments, and the scheme has benefitted 39,72,551 new employees.

The government set a target to create 5.85 million formal jobs by March 31, 2022.

The average time to process claims was 7.7 days, which decreased from 11.5 days in 2019-20.

Maharashtra has 17,524 beneficiary establishments. The scheme has benefitted 6,49,560 new employees with a total amount of Rs 4,09,72,34,366.

Gujarat, second in the list of states with the highest number of beneficiaries has 12,379 beneficiary establishments. The scheme has benefitted 4,44,741 new employees with a total amount of Rs 2,78,63,52,624.

Karanataka has 8,024 beneficiary establishments. The scheme has benefitted 3,07,164 new employees with a total amount of Rs 2,21,63,55,794.
 

Tamil Nadu disbursed Rs 3,00,46,76,607 to 5,35,615 new employees.

ABRY was launched in October 2020 as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat package 3.0 to incentivise employers and provide them with social security benefits and restore the loss of employment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the scheme, the government reimburses 24-12 per cent each for employees and employers - for two years for all new formal jobs created in enterprises having up to 1,000 employees between October 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022. The scheme is applicable for employees earning less than Rs 15,000 a month.

Even workers who had lost jobs during the pandemic period between March 1, 2020 and September 30 and later got employed under EPFO registered establishments after October 1, 2020 are eligible for benefits under the scheme subject to the wage ceiling.

However, with enterprises having more than 1,000 workers, the reimbursement is restricted to 12% of the employees' contribution.