New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) on Thursday said its Assets Under Management (AUM) have crossed the Rs five lakh crore mark.

Accordingly, the subscriber's contributions under the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) have jointly contributed to this landmark figure, over a period of 12 years.

Besides, the NPS subscribers base has also grown over the years with 70.40 lakh employees joining the scheme from the government sector and 24.24 lakh from the non-government sector.

"We have enabled a robust and unique architecture with efficient systems and professional fund managers delivering market based returns enabling our subscriber to accumulate their retirement corpus," said Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, PFRDA.

"During this pandemic, a growing realisation of both corporates and individuals has emerged that retirement planning is not a mere saving or tax benefit choice, witnessed by NPS enrolment growing almost 14 per cent during this challenging period."

As on October 10, the total number of subscribers under the NPS and Atal Pension Yojana has crossed 3.76 crore and the AUM has grown to Rs 5,05,424 crore.

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.

Accordingly, 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 corporates for its employees.