Close on the lines of an amnesty scheme of Income Tax department, the goverment on Friday announced such a scheme to recover staggering arrears of Rs 2,200 crore (Rs 22 billion) from the employers who have defaulted on their provident fund commitments.

"In today's meeting (of the Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund), it was decided to devise an amnesty scheme fo recovering Rs 2,200 crores of arrears from employers, who have failed on their EPF obligations," Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma told reporters after the meeting.

Under the scheme, which would have to be first passed by Parliament, certain benefits and concessions including waiver of penalties, would be given to the employers to pay their PF arrears so as to bring them on the mainstream of compliance.

Of the Rs 2,200 crore amount involved, about 70 per cent of the cases are under litigation including courts and various Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction cases.

Announcing a slew of reforms, Verma also said very soon EPFO would close about 11 lakh (1.1 million) "marginal accounts", which had less than Rs 100 balance in individual accounts, and the amount would be transferred to a social security fund for the benefit of workers.

He said closing down such accounts were beneficial, as it would bring down the administrative costs of maintaining that small accounts.

The minister said a committee has been appointed to go into the details of providing insurance cover for workers, who have lost jobs.