By Rohit Vaid
New Delhi, Mar 15 (IANS): Pandemic induced financial stress has triggered an upswing for India's state-run pension scheme, the National Pension System (NPS), which is expected to enrol around a million new subscribers by the end of FY22.
Besides, not only did the scheme buck the Covid-19 downtrend in subscribers enrolment rate it also sustained growth in contributions.
At present, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) oversees the NPS and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
In a conversation with IANS, PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said: "We expect to have a 1 million new subscribers under NPS by end of March 2022.
"The pandemic did create awareness around sound saving habits and the trend is expected to continue."
Till now in FY22, the scheme has attracted over 8,55,000 new subscribers.
Recent data showed that a healthy rise in corporate sector subscribers took the overall subscription base of various pension schemes regulated by the PFRDA to reach 507.22 lakh as of end-February 2022.
Besides, as of February 28, 2022, the total pension assets under management stood at Rs 717,467 crore showing a YoY growth of 28.21 per cent.
Furthermore, Bandyopadhyay said that exclusive tax breaks in the Union Budget did help in making NPS, as an attractive scheme.
"Now, we will try to reach out to semi-rural and rural areas by various means to increase our enrollment levels. We have recently allowed individuals to be registered through PoPs to help in distribution of NPS."
Accordingly, the authority aims to provide at least ‘One Retirement Plan Per Family' in the country.
"The longevity of the Indian population is increasing so is the old age financial burden. We are trying to make people aware of this.
"In advanced countries, we see the pension assets are more than the GDP of the country. Global trends in the pension industry will be played out in India as well and the pension sector will contribute immensely in the growth of the economy," Bandyopadhyay added
The PFRDA is the statutory authority established by an enactment of Parliament, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the NPS and pension schemes to which this Act applies.
The NPS was initially notified for the Central government employees recruited from January 1, 2004 and subsequently adopted by almost all the state governments for its employees.
It was later extended to all Indian citizens on a voluntary basis and to corporations for their employees.