Mansukh Mandaviya says EPFO 3.0 will be equivalent to the banking systems in the country and the website will be more user friendly. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in Delhi on Thursday (January 2, 2025) that the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will launch its new software system EPFO 3.0 by June this year. He told reporters that the new system will be equivalent to the banking systems in the country and the website will be more user friendly.

The Minister said the EPFO will also provide ATM cards to its subscribers after rolling out EPFO 3.0. “The first phase of upgrading the website and systems will be completed by the end of January 2025,” he added.

Countering the Opposition’s charge of growing unemployment in the country, Mr. Mandaviya claimed that the employment has increased under NDA government when compared to UPA government.

Citing the KLEMS (K – Capital, L – Labour, E – Energy, M – Materials and S – Services) report prepared by the Reserve Bank of India, he said the report gave the correct statistics on employment scenario and that employment has increased by 36% to 64.33 crore in 2023-24 from 47.15 crore in 2014-15.

“Under the UPA government, just 2.9 crore additional jobs were created in 10 years. But under Narendra Modi government, 17.19 crore additional jobs have been created,” he said, citing the report.

According to the Minister, employment in agriculture sector declined by 16% between 2004 and 2014 under the UPA government and grew by 19% between 2014 and 2023 under the Modi government. Similarly, in manufacturing sector too, he claimed, the rate of growth in employment is 15%, higher than the UPA period when it was 6%. In services sector, he said, employment grew by 36% under the NDA government while it grew by 25% between 2004 to 2014.

Mr. Mandaviya claimed that unemployment rate dropped from 6% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24 and that Worker Population Ratio grew from 46.8% in 2017-18 to 58.2% in 2023-24.