new delhi retirement fund body added 139 crore new subscribers in last two financial years the ministry of labour employment said on mondayrecently published provisional payroll data by the epfo highlights the ever growing trend of increasing subscriber base for epfo since the collation of payroll data from september 2017 the ministry said in a statementthe payroll data presents the consolidated annual figures for 201819 and 201920net addition to subscriber base rose from 6112 lakh added in 201819 to 7858 lakh in 201920 registering a 28 per cent growth it addedthe data published comprises of all the new members who have joined during the month and whose contribution is receivedthe subscriber growth is on account of lower exits and higher rejoining by exited members it explainedthe taxfree returns of 85 per cent for 201920 which is one of the highest among other social security instruments and fixed deposits has helped the epfo reduce its exits for 201920 by around 10 per cent as compared with the previous year it saidmoreover there has been a robust increase of around 75 per cent in terms of rejoining by the members exited from 4378 lakh in 201819 to 7815 lakh in 201920 it claimedthe autotransfer facility which enables hasslefree transfer of pf balance from the old account to the new account on change of job has played a big role in ensuring continuity of membership in many cases it saidage wise analysis during 201920 indicates that for the age group 2628 2935 and beyond 35 the net enrolment has increased by more than 50 per cent compared to the previous year it statedrapid improvement in quality of service delivery in online mode has attracted the workforce of the country towards services of epfo it claimedmoreover pf accumulation is no longer looked at as lockedin money with epfo settling covid19 advances within three days pf accumulations are now seen as liquid assets that can timely meet the need of the subscribers during crisis it saidpf advances can be availed in case of unemployment marriage expense higher education housing and medical treatmentfurther enrolment of female workers has gone up by around 22 per cent during 201920 compared to previous years indicating greater female participation in formal workforce it saidthe data published indicates that a total of 113 lakh new establishments have commenced compliance for the first time during 201819 and 201910simplification of compliance process enabling establishments to obtain pf code easily through portal and facility of filing electronic challan cum return ecr online has promoted voluntary compliance by establishments it addedcategory wise analysis of industry indicates that hospitals and financing establishments have shown greater than 50 per cent growth while trading commercial establishments textiles and establishments providing cleaning sweeping services have all grown at greater than 20 per cent in terms of net enrolment it saidit is indeed an indication that greater formalisation of jobs is taking place in the indian employment market which is also corroborated by the 201920 economic survey