Which of the following statements relating to the ‘Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees (SPREE) 2025’ is/are correct ? 1. SPREE is approved by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). 2. SPREE provides a one-time opportunity for unregistered employers and employees – including contractual and temporary workers. Select the answer using the codes given below :

Correct — C, (c) Both 1 and 2. Both statements about SPREE 2025 are accurate, and both come almost word for word from the announcement of the scheme.

STATEMENT 1 — 'SPREE is approved by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).' CORRECT. The Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees, 2025 was approved by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation, the body corporate constituted under section 3 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 to administer the scheme. Its approval came at a meeting of the Corporation, which is chaired by the Union Minister for Labour and Employment, and the scheme ran from 1 July to 31 December 2025, with a further extension of one month to 31 January 2026.

STATEMENT 2 — 'SPREE provides a one-time opportunity for unregistered employers and employees – including contractual and temporary workers.' CORRECT. That is exactly what the scheme offers: unregistered employers may register their units and unregistered employees, including contractual and temporary workers, may be brought on to the rolls, without inspection of past records and without any demand for contributions in respect of the earlier period. Registration is done through the ESIC portal, and through the Shram Suvidha and MCA portals.

The design deserves a word, because it explains why the scheme exists. Employers stay out of the ESI net partly from ignorance and partly from fear that registering will invite a demand for years of arrears and a set of penalties. Any scheme that wants to enlarge coverage has to remove that fear, and SPREE does so by granting an amnesty on the past in exchange for registration in the present. The employees gained are the ones a compliance drive would be least likely to reach — contractual and temporary workers, whose employers are often the smallest and least formal.

Both statements being correct, the answer is (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)1 only — This accepts the approving authority and rejects the description of the scheme, but the description is accurate. SPREE 2025 is precisely a one-time opportunity for unregistered employers and unregistered employees to come on to the ESI rolls, and it is expressly extended to contractual and temporary workers — the categories most likely to be left out of formal registration. Its distinguishing feature is that units and employees registering under it are treated as covered from the date they choose within the scheme's window, with no inspection of past records and no demand for earlier contributions. A candidate might reject the statement by supposing an amnesty of that kind impossible, but it is exactly what the scheme grants.
• (b)2 only — This accepts the description of the scheme and rejects the approving authority, but the ESI Corporation is the right body. Section 3 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 establishes the Corporation as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and sections 4 and 10 provide for its composition — members representing the Central Government, the State Governments, employers, employees and the medical profession, with the Union Minister for Labour and Employment as Chairman — and for its Standing Committee and Medical Benefit Council. The Corporation is where decisions of this kind are taken. A candidate may reject the statement by assuming that a national scheme must come from a Ministry, but the Corporation is the statutory administrator of the ESI scheme and approves its own registration drives.
• (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — This rejects both statements, and neither is wrong. It is the option a candidate reaches by having no recollection of the scheme at all and treating an unfamiliar acronym as an invention. The safeguard is to test each statement for internal plausibility against what is known of the institution: the ESI Corporation is the statutory body that administers the ESI scheme and would be the natural approving authority for a registration drive under it, and an amnesty-based registration campaign is a recognisable instrument of Indian labour administration, ESIC having run earlier drives of the same name and shape. Neither statement asserts anything that sits oddly with the structure of the Act.

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation is the body corporate constituted under section 3 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, and it administers the scheme through which insured persons receive the six benefits named in section 46. Coverage under the Act depends on establishments registering and on employers enrolling their employees, and the persistent policy problem is that a large part of the eligible workforce — especially contractual, temporary and casual workers in small units — never gets registered at all. SPREE, the Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees, is the Corporation's recurring answer to that problem. The 2025 edition ran from 1 July to 31 December 2025, extended by one month to 31 January 2026, and offered unregistered employers and employees a one-time window to come on to the rolls, expressly including contractual and temporary workers, with registration accepted through the ESIC portal and through the Shram Suvidha and MCA portals, without inspection of past records and without demand for earlier contributions. Read the scheme against the framework it sits in: the wage ceiling for coverage under rule 50 of the ESI (Central) Rules, 1950 is ₹ 21,000 a month; contributions under rule 51 are 3.25 per cent from the employer and 0.75 per cent from the employee since 1 July 2019; and the benefits under section 46 are sickness, maternity, disablement, dependants', medical benefit and funeral expenses. A registration drive of this kind is worth nothing to a worker unless it is followed by contributions, which is why the scheme's design turns on making the employer's first step painless.

Key facts

• SPREE 2025 — the Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees — was approved by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation.
• It ran from 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2025 and was extended by a further month to 31 January 2026.
• It offers a one-time opportunity for unregistered employers and unregistered employees, including contractual and temporary workers, to register.
• Units and employees registering under the scheme face no inspection of past records and no demand for contributions for the earlier period.
• Registration is available through the ESIC portal and through the Shram Suvidha and MCA portals.
• The ESI Corporation is a body corporate constituted under section 3 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948, chaired by the Union Minister for Labour and Employment.
• The wage ceiling for ESI coverage is ₹ 21,000 a month under rule 50 of the ESI (Central) Rules, 1950.
• Contribution rates under rule 51 are 3.25 per cent from the employer and 0.75 per cent from the employee with effect from 1 July 2019.
• Section 46 of the Act provides six benefits — sickness, maternity, disablement, dependants', medical benefit and funeral expenses.

Common traps

• Assuming a national scheme must be approved by a Ministry rather than by the statutory Corporation that administers the Act.
• Doubting that an amnesty on past contributions is possible. Removing that liability is the whole design of the scheme.
• Confusing the ESIC scheme with EPFO's own measures, which are announced in similar language.
• Rejecting a statement merely because the acronym is unfamiliar.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  SPREE 2025, the Scheme for Promotion of Registration of Employers and Employees, was approved by :

  • (a)The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation
  • (b)The Employees' State Insurance Corporation
  • (c)The Central Board of Direct Taxes
  • (d)The National Social Security Board

  Answer(b) The Employees' State Insurance Corporation

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The wage ceiling for coverage of an employee under the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 is :

  • (a)₹ 15,000 a month
  • (b)₹ 21,000 a month
  • (c)₹ 24,000 a month
  • (d)₹ 25,000 a month for every employee

  Answer(b) ₹ 21,000 a month