Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana: Part B — Support to Employers with Focus on Manufacturing Sector

What is Part B of the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana?

Part B of the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana is the "support to employers" component of the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme administered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment through the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The ELI scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2025 with an outlay of about Rs 99,446 crore, and is designed to support the creation of new jobs across the formal economy over a defined window, with a special focus on the manufacturing sector under Part B.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the scheme has two arms: Part A supports first-time employees entering EPFO-covered employment, while Part B rewards employers for creating additional jobs over and above their existing headcount. Under Part B, the government pays the employer up to Rs 3,000 per month for each additional employee, for two years, and for the manufacturing sector this is extended to the third and fourth years as well, provided the additional workers are retained.

This is an employer incentive, not a citizen benefit. The money goes to the establishment that creates jobs, not to the individual worker; workers are supported, if at all, under the separate Part A first-timer benefit.

Who is eligible under Part B?

Eligible:

• Employers registered with EPFO who increase their headcount above a reference baseline and sustain the additional employees.
• Establishments with fewer than 50 employees must add at least two additional employees; those with 50 or more must add at least five, and retain them for at least six months.
• Additional employees earning up to Rs 1 lakh a month, holding an Aadhaar-seeded Universal Account Number (UAN) with EPFO, count toward the employer's incentive.

Not eligible / cannot apply:

• Individual jobseekers and workers: Part B pays the employer, so an individual cannot apply for a personal benefit under it.
• Establishments not registered with EPFO, or those that do not create net additional employment above their baseline.
• Headcount that merely replaces attrition without a genuine net increase over the reference level.

How much does the employer receive?

Under Part B, the employer receives up to Rs 3,000 per month for each additional employee, graded by the employee's wage level, for a period of two years. For establishments in the manufacturing sector, the incentive is extended into the third and fourth years, recognising the longer gestation of manufacturing jobs. The incentive is tied to the retention of the additional employees; if the additional headcount is not sustained, the corresponding incentive stops.

Because the exact wage-slab grading of the Rs 3,000 ceiling and the year-by-year release schedule are set out in the scheme's operational guidelines, employers should confirm the current slab structure from the Ministry of Labour and Employment / EPFO notification for their establishment.

What documents and records are required?

How to apply for the Part B employer incentive

1. Register / confirm EPFO coverage — the establishment must be registered with EPFO and current on its monthly Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) filings.
2. Create additional jobs above the reference headcount; at least two new employees for establishments under 50 staff, or at least five for establishments of 50 or more.
3. Onboard employees with Aadhaar-seeded UANs and reflect them in the monthly ECR returns, so the additional headcount is visible in EPFO records.
4. Retain the additional employees for the qualifying period (at least six months) so the jobs count as sustained net additions.
5. Receive the verified incentive through direct benefit transfer to the establishment's PAN-linked account, released by EPFO for the eligible period, two years generally, and up to four years for manufacturing.

Why Part B focuses on manufacturing

By paying employers for each additional worker retained, and by extending that payment to four years for manufacturing, Part B is built to reward durable job creation rather than short-term hiring. Manufacturing jobs typically take longer to stabilise and generate the largest downstream employment, which is why the scheme gives that sector the longest incentive window. The benefit is deliberately routed through EPFO and formal payroll, so it also nudges employers toward formalising employment and enrolling workers in provident fund and social security.

Where to apply and whom to contact

Part B is delivered through EPFO under the Ministry of Labour and Employment; establishments interact with it through their normal EPFO registration and ECR filing, and can reach the EPFO helpline on 1800-118-005 or their regional EPFO office for scheme queries. As there is no individual beneficiary under Part B, there is no citizen application portal. Employers should verify the current eligibility thresholds, wage slabs, incentive amounts and scheme period from the latest Ministry of Labour and Employment / EPFO notification, since the operational details of the Employment Linked Incentive scheme are governed by those guidelines.

How to check your application status

There is no individual application to track under Part B, because the benefit is paid to the employer establishment, not to a worker. Even so, an establishment that has claimed the incentive can confirm where its claim stands in the following ways.

1. Check the monthly ECR filing status first. Log in to the EPFO employer portal (the Unified Employer Portal linked from labour.gov.in) and confirm that the establishment's Electronic Challan cum Return for the relevant wage month has been filed and accepted. The Part B incentive is computed off this ECR data, so a rejected or pending ECR is the first thing to rule out.
2. Confirm the additional headcount is reflected correctly. Within the ECR, verify that the newly added employees appear with their Aadhaar-seeded UANs and that the establishment's total headcount for the month shows the required net increase over its baseline (two or more for establishments under 50 staff, five or more for larger ones).
3. Watch the establishment's PAN-linked bank account for the direct benefit transfer. Since the incentive is disbursed through DBT to the employer's PAN-linked account, the employer's finance or payroll team should reconcile incoming credits from EPFO / Ministry of Labour and Employment against the expected per-employee amount for that period.
4. Use the EPFO helpline for anything the portal does not show. If a filed ECR does not translate into a credited incentive within a reasonable cycle, the establishment can call the EPFO helpline on 1800-118-005, or approach its jurisdictional Regional Provident Fund Commissioner (RPFC) office, quoting the establishment's EPFO code and the wage months in question.
5. Escalate through the Ministry of Labour and Employment channel if EPFO cannot resolve it. Since Part B is a Ministry scheme operationalised through EPFO, establishments that get no resolution at the regional office level can raise the matter through labour.gov.in's grievance channel, citing the ELI scheme (Part B) by name.

There is no SMS or status-tracking number for this scheme aimed at individual employees, since employees are not the claimant; any employee query about whether their employer is claiming the incentive should be directed to the employer's HR or payroll office, not to EPFO directly.

Common reasons for rejection

Because Part B pays the employer rather than an individual, most "rejections" actually take the form of a claim period simply not generating any payable incentive. The concrete, fixable reasons this happens are:

• The establishment is not EPFO-registered, or has lapsed in filing. An establishment that is not covered by EPFO, or that has stopped filing monthly ECR returns, cannot generate the payroll data the incentive is computed from. Fix: register with EPFO if not already covered, and bring ECR filings current before the claim period.
• The net headcount increase does not meet the threshold. Establishments with fewer than 50 employees must add at least two additional employees, and those with 50 or more must add at least five; adding fewer than this shows as no qualifying increase at all. Fix: verify the establishment's baseline headcount and confirm the actual net addition against it before assuming the incentive applies.
• New hires are only replacing attrition, not adding net headcount. If employees who left are simply replaced, the establishment's total headcount does not rise above the reference baseline, so there is no "additional employee" to reward. Fix: track headcount as a net number each month, not just gross hires, so genuine expansion is distinguishable from churn.
• New employees lack an Aadhaar-seeded UAN. An employee without Aadhaar linked to their Universal Account Number cannot be counted as a qualifying additional employee in EPFO's records. Fix: ensure every new hire completes Aadhaar seeding of their UAN promptly, and confirm it reflects correctly in the ECR before relying on that employee for the incentive.
• The additional employees are not retained for the minimum period. The scheme requires the additional headcount to be sustained for at least six months; employees who leave before that make the corresponding addition non-qualifying. Fix: if retention is uncertain, do not count that hire toward the claimed increase until the retention period is actually completed.
• Employee wages exceed the covered ceiling. Only additional employees earning up to Rs 1 lakh a month count toward the employer's incentive; hires above that wage level do not qualify, even if they represent genuine net additions. Fix: check the monthly wage of each new hire against the ceiling before including them in the claimed headcount.
• PAN details on the establishment record are outdated or mismatched. Since the incentive is transferred through a PAN-linked account, a mismatch between the establishment's PAN and its EPFO or bank records can hold up disbursal even when the underlying employment data is correct. Fix: confirm the establishment's PAN is current and correctly linked in both EPFO records and the receiving bank account before the claim period closes.