NPS, APY Subscribers up 22% to Rs 4.05 crore at January-end 2021: PFRDA

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) released data, the number of subscribers under the government-run NPS and APY pension schemes increased by almost 22% to 4,05 crore at the end of January this year.

The two PFRDA flagship programs are the National Pension System (NPS) and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY).

While the NPS caters to workers in the regulated market, the APY is structured to address the pension needs of employees in the unorganized sector.

National Pension System

A voluntary retirement savings plan is the fixed benefit-based NPS. The NPS investments are deposited into a pension fund which, in turn, is invested in diversified investments such as government bonds, bills, corporate bonds and securities by PFRDA managed fund managers.

Atal Pension Yojana

APY addresses certain groups of jobs that do not have any formal social insurance arrangement and who are not taxpayers of income. Depending on their expenses, subscribers will earn a fixed minimum pension of Rs 1,000 to a maximum of Rs 5,000 per month, at the age of 60 years.

Total pension assets under administration stood at Rs. 5,56,410 crore as of 31 January 2021, reflecting a Y-o-Y rise of 35.94 %.

The authority will soon start conducting e-KYC services for subscribers to the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).

The subscriber base under NPS soared 31.72% to 14.95 lakh for the 'all citizen sector' segment, while it rose 17.71% to 10.90 lakh for the private sector.

S.N.		Sector		Jan-20		Mar-20		Jan-21		Growth % YOY
1		Central Government		136079		138046		177476		30.42
2		State Government		205737		211023		281356		36.76
3		Corporate Sector		40717		41243		58561		43.82
4		All Citizen Sector		12954		12913		19705		52.12
5		NPS Lite		3758		3728		4318		14.90
6		Atal Pension Yojana		10068		10,526		14994		48.93
Grand Total				409313		417479		556410		35.94