EPFO to start 'Employees' Enrollment Campaign, 2025' next month
What's the story
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has announced the 'Employees's Enrollment Campaign, 2025.' The initiative, which will run from November 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026, aims to increase the number of employees enrolled under the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme. The campaign is part of a broader strategy by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to promote formal job creation and expand social security coverage.
Enrollment focus
Who are eligible for the scheme?
The EEC 2025 campaign specifically targets employees who joined their respective establishments between July 1, 2017, and October 31, 2025. These individuals must be alive and currently employed on the date of declaration. The scheme allows employers to enroll all existing employees who were not previously registered under the EPF scheme for any reason whatsoever.
Benefits eligibility
Benefits for employers
Employers who register or declare additional employees under the EEC 2025 will be eligible to avail benefits under the Pradhan Mantri-Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana. However, this is subject to certain terms and conditions of that scheme. The campaign aims to motivate both existing and new employers registered under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, to voluntarily declare and enroll eligible employees.
Past success
Waiver of penalties
The Ministry of Labour and Employment had previously conducted a similar enrollment campaign in 2017. This was for the enrollment of left-out eligible employees from 2009 to 2016. For the current campaign, if an employee's share of provident fund contribution for the past period (from July 1, 2017, to October 31, 2025) wasn't deducted from their wages, it will be waived off. The employer only has to pay their own share for such a period.
Penalty reduction
Nominal penal damage
Employers availing this scheme will only have to pay a nominal penal damage of ₹100 as a lump sum. This is a major reduction from the standard penalties for non-compliance. No suo motu compliance action will be initiated by the EPFO against employers who avail benefits of EEC, in respect of such employees who have already left their establishment as on the date of declaration.