More than forty thousand members of the exempted Provident Fund (PF) trusts have withdrawn a total advance of Rs 481 crore to tide over the Covid-19 induced lockdown crisis, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said in a statement. In view of the economic hardships caused by the nationwide lockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had given the employees a relaxation to withdraw money from their Provident Fund Accounts on March 28. The government had allowed an advance non-refundable withdrawal of either up to three months’ wages and dearness allowance or 75 per cent of the outstanding credit limit of the employee account, whichever is less.
Exempted PF trusts have risen to the occasion amidst this nationwide crisis and a total of Rs 481.63 crores have been disbursed by these trusts to a total of 40,826 employees, the Employment and Labour ministry said. The aforementioned data was up to the period of 17th March. Since then, more employees may have availed the benefits provided to bail themselves out of the Covid-19 crisis.
The top 10 exempted PF trusts mentioned on the government’s list include Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies Limited, NTPC, Power Grid among others. The highest amount of Rs 84 crore was disbursed among 3255 employees of Neyveli Lignite Corporation followed by Rs 43 crore disbursal to 9373 employees of TCS.
In addition to allowing non-refundable withdrawal from PF accounts, the government had also announced a special scheme for the employees of small enterprises having a maximum of 100 employees. The government had announced that to maintain continuity in the PF accounts of the employees of small companies, it would contribute the employee’s as well as the employer’s contribution for next three months. The scheme was only applicable for companies which had a maximum of 100 employees and 90 per cent of whom have a monthly salary of up to Rs 15,000.