According to the Employee State Insurance Corporation payroll data, (ESIC data), over 19.6 new jobs have been added in November 2019 alone. The total number of employees who registered during the month were 19,62,804 showed the payroll data.
The number of employees registered during the month of November is the second-highest in the financial year so far. The highest was in July with 19,86,360 employees registered during the month.
However, more than the number of employees being added, what makes November especially pertinent is that the number of employees from the existing stock who stopped paying the contribution during the month was the lowest in November 2019.
In November 2019, 12,66,225 employees stopped paying their contribution towards ESIC which is the lowest in the year 2019.
These numbers are corroborated by the GST collection for the month of November as well. The GST collection numbers that were released in December show that the collection was up by 6% in November 2019.
The collection in November 2019 stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore in November, reversing two months of decline. GST collections were Rs 97,637 crore in November 2017 and Rs 95,380 crore in October 2019.
In December 2019, the numbers looked even better. GST collections yet again crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore benchmark for the second consecutive month in December 2019. In December, Rs 1.03 lakh crore was collected as GST owing to increased consumption and better compliance.
The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2019 was Rs 1,03,184 crore of which CGST was Rs 19,962 crore, SGST was Rs 26,792 crore, IGST was Rs 48,099 crore including Rs 21,295 crore collected on imports and Cess is Rs 8,331 crore.
Clearly, the increase in collections coupled with the increase in new employees being registered with ESIC and November registering the lowest number of employees who stopped paying ESIC contribution is a sign of economic revival, recovery in demand and measures to ease compliance. November 2019 significantly not only saw the second-highest new addition of employees but the highest net addition of employees as per ESIC records in the financial year so far.
The ESI Act is an important provision by the Central government and forms a part of Employee health benefits. Any establishment that has more than 10 employees is required to enrol under the ESI Act.
Under this act, a specified percentage is meant to be deducted from the employees’ salary and the specified percentage is meant to be contributed by the employer. The deductions and contributions are monthly and are meant to be deposited with the ESI corporation under the central government. This amount is then used to provide free treatment of the employee should they fall unwell. As soon as the employee is registered under the ESI Act, he starts to get free treatment from the ESI hospitals which are run and maintained by the ESI corporation (under the central government) and state governments.
Under the ESI act, if certain tests are not available or done by the ESI hospitals, the ESIC has contracts with several private hospitals and diagnostic centres where the patient can simply show their credentials and avail of the tests. The bills are then settled by the ESIC.
