Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
- Recently, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced that Assets Under Management (AUM) under the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY), crossed the milestone of Rs. 6 trillion.
- AUM is the total market value of the investments that a person or entity handles on behalf of investors.
Important points:
National Pension System:
- The Central Government has introduced the National Pension System (NPS) with effect from January 2004 (except for armed forces).
- In 2018 to streamline the NPS and make it more attractive, the Union Cabinet approved changes in the scheme to benefit central government employees covered under NPS.
- NPS is being implemented and regulated by PFRDA in the country.
- National Pension System Trust (NPST) established by PFRDA is the registered owner of all assets under NPS.
Structure: NPS is structured into two tiers:
Tier-I account:
This is the non-withdrawable permanent retirement account into which the accumulations are deposited and invested as per the option of the subscriber.
Tier-II account:
- This is a voluntary withdrawable account which is allowed only when there is an active Tier I account in the name of the subscriber.
- The withdrawals are permitted from this account as per the needs of the subscriber as and when claimed.
Beneficiaries:
- NPS was made available to all Citizens of India from May 2009.
- Any individual citizen of India (both resident and Non-resident) in the age group of 18-65 years can join NPS.
- However, OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin) card holders and Hindu Undivided Family (HUFs) are not eligible for opening of NPS accounts.
Atal Pension Yojana:
- The scheme was launched in May, 2015, with the objective of creating a universal social security system for all Indians, especially the poor, the under-privileged and the workers in the unorganised sector.
- The scheme has been implemented comprehensively across the country covering all states and Union Territories with male to female subscription ratio of 57:43.
- However, only 5% of the eligible population has been covered under APY till date.
- PFRDA through NPS.
- Any citizen of India can join the APY scheme. The age of the subscriber should be between 18-40 years.
- The contribution levels would vary and would be low if a subscriber joins early and increases if she joins late.
- It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.
- The amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to the spouse on death of the subscriber.
- In the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority
- It is the statutory Authority established by an enactment of the Parliament, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the National Pension System (NPS).
- It works under the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance.
- It performs the function of appointing various intermediate agencies like Pension Fund Managers, Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) etc.
- It develops, promotes and regulates the pension industry under the NPS and also administers the APY.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
