GEIS-新闻详情

PFRDA asks lenders to shore up private sector subscribers under NPS

2024-01-19 00:00:00.0 商业标准报-经济和政策原网页

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) on Friday prodded the banks to shore up fresh enrolments for National Pension System (NPS) to achieve its ambitious 1.3 million new subscribers target for the private sector in FY24.

“If you look at the private sector component of the NPS, which includes corporates and individuals… we have a target of enroling 1.3 million new subscribers this year. Out of that, we have crossed the halfway mark till now (around 600,000). To shore up these figures, we held this meeting with the banks today (Friday), which normally act as point of presence (POPs) to onboard new subscribers,” PFRDA Chairman Deepak Mohanty told reporters after the meeting.

Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel

The chairman said the decline seen in e-NPS (voluntary accounts) was responsible for the slow pace of enrolments this year.

He said the total corpus being managed by the PFRDA under the NPS and Atal Pension Yojana has crossed Rs 11 trillion and it is likely that the total corpus would cross Rs 12 trillion in the current financial year.

“Usually there is seasonality in the last quarter of the year as well and we are ‘hopeful’ of reaching the target of 1.3 million this year,” he said.

The pension authority is also working on a minimum assured pension plan, and it could become a reality in the next financial year if the guarantee issued is resolved.

“There are a lot of complications in determining the rate of return, what to set as the bar for return. Fund managers are also thinly capitalised. So, you have to keep a check on their liabilities also,” Mohanty said.

Asked about the Budget, he said the move to raise the assured return under the Atal Pension Yojana continues to be on the ‘wish list’. However, he declined to comment if the Interim Budget might take up the issue. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Interim Budget for 2024-25 on February 1.

Whether the states continue to contribute after pulling out of the NPS, the chairman said the states do continue to contribute to the plan irrespective of the on-paper withdrawal. However, he did not wish to identify the states.