A PTI report citing a senior PFRDA officer said that the pension regulator was conducting an actuarial valuation of its portfolio to check the feasibility to raise the pension limit for Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to up to Rs 10,000 a month.

A proposal was made in the past by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to raise the existing pension limit of Rs 5,000 per month. Since it is a government scheme, the government is obligated to honour the guarantee. The actuarial valuation of the portfolio is being conducted to see whether the government will need to do something to honour the guarantee of pension payment or if it will not be required, the report said. The process is expected to be complete by December. Any concrete proposal, if feasible, will only be made in February or March next year, it said.

There are five slabs of pension at present, from Rs 1,000 to 5,000 per month. The report said that a market feedback argues that in 20 to 30 years, a sum of Rs 5,000 as pension will not suffice at the age of 60 years.

Earlier in July, the finance ministry said that there was no need to increase the pension limit but the proposal from the PFRDA on the same was under examination.