ATAL PENSION YOJANA

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• 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