New Delhi, 1 July (IANS). The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, paying special attention to the manufacturing sector, has approved the incentive -related incentive scheme (ELI) to increase employment generation, employment capacity and social security in all areas.
The ELI scheme was announced as part of the package of five schemes of the Prime Minister in the Union Budget 2024-25, whose total budget is Rs 2 lakh crore.
Under this scheme, employees working for the first time will get a salary of up to Rs 15,000, while employers will be encouraged for a period of two years to generate additional employment. Along with this, the manufacturing sector will be given extended benefits for two years.
The ELI scheme’s target is to encourage the creation of more than 3.5 crore jobs in the country over a period of two years with a outlay of Rs 99,446 crore. Of these, 1.92 crore beneficiaries will be going to enter the workforce for the first time. The benefit of this scheme will be applicable to jobs created between 1 August 2025 to 31 July, 2027.
The scheme is being introduced in two parts, in which the first part focuses on the first applied and the second part focuses on employers.
Under the first part, the EPF salary of one month will be paid in two installments up to Rs 15,000, keeping in mind the first working employees registered with the EPFO. Employees with salary up to Rs 1 lakh will be eligible.
The first installment will be given after 6 months of service and the second installment will be given after 12 months of service and the employee after completing the financial literacy program.
To encourage savings, a part of the incentive will be placed in the savings means of the deposited account for a certain period and can be extracted by the employee at a latter date.
Under this part, about 1.92 crore employees who come on job for the first time are expected to benefit.
Under the second part, additional employment generation will be included in all areas, in which special attention will be paid to the manufacturing sector. Employers will get encouragement regarding employees with salary up to Rs 1 lakh.
The government will encourage employers up to Rs 3,000 per month for every additional employee with continuous employment for at least six months. The incentive for the manufacturing sector will also be extended to the third and fourth year.
Establishments registered with EPFO will require to appoint at least two additional employees (for employers with less than 50 employees) or five additional employees (for employers with more or more employees) on a continuous basis for at least six months.
Incentive structure will be such that the employer will get Rs 1,000 as an incentive for additional employee with EPF salary slab of Rs 10,000. For a salary slab of Rs 10,000 to 20,000, the employer will get an incentive of Rs 2,000 per employee, while the incentive will be up to Rs 3,000 for an employee with a salary of up to Rs 20,000 and an employee with a salary of up to Rs 1 lakh.
This part is expected to encourage employers for the creation of employment in addition to about 2.60 crore people.
The official statement said that all the payment to the employees working for the first time under the first part of the scheme will be made through DBT (direct benefit transfer) mode using the ‘Aadhaar Bridge Payment System’. Under Part B, payment to employers will be made directly in their pan-linked accounts.
-IANS
SKT/ABM
