State governments that have ostensibly opted out of the National Pension System (NPS) for their employees and have reverted to the Old Pension Scheme that guaranteed 50% of final salary as monthly pension, continue to remit due contributions to the NPS corpus.
State government employees account for the largest chunk of the savings pool which crossed ₹10 lakh crore on August 25, 14 years and three months after the NPS regulated by the Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) actively started managing the old-age savings of government employees who joined service on or after January 1, 2004.
The NPS, which was earlier referred to as the New Pension Scheme, now offers retirement schemes for the unorganised sector through the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which has 4.94 crore members as well as 18.13 lakh formal sector employees, apart from managing Central and State government employees’ retirement savings.
“The NPS has made pension accessible to all, irrespective of their salaried status, and the journey from ₹5 lakh crore to ₹10 lakh crore in terms of assets under management has taken just two years and 10 months,” said Deepak Mohanty, chairman of the PFRDA, noting that the system now has almost 6.63 crore members.
Nearly 53 lakh State government employees account for about 44% of the NPS corpus, while members who have joined on a voluntary basis stand at around 49 lakh with savings worth ₹1.82 lakh crore; 66 central public sector enterprises have logged on to the NPS while public sector banks have enrolled over 5.2 lakh employees, the PFRDA said.
While 46% of APY members are women, Mr. Mohanty said that this ratio is far lower in the other NPS schemes at around 27% to 28%. He attributed this to the broader issue of women’s low labour force participation rate.
New options
The PFRDA is ringing in two important changes to expand the options available to NPS members at the time of retirement, likely as early as next month, Mr. Mohanty said. Presently, on superannuation, members have to purchase an annuity with 40% of their accumulated retirement savings and withdraw the balance.
“Now, we will allow members to opt for a systematic withdrawal plan for 60% of the corpus, by which they can choose to receive a fixed sum from their savings on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis. This will be helpful for those who retire, say during a bearish market, and also help members continue to earn better returns in the NPS framework rather than look for alternative investment options,” the PFRDA chief explained.
Moreover, for the mandatory annuity purchases, members would be able to opt for a mix of schemes rather than a single scheme. Annuity products entail a fixed payout to investors after they invest a lumpsum. Some schemes assure a return of capital to members’ next of kin after their demise, but offer lower regular incomes. “We are enabling members to direct their annuity component to a variety of schemes and are waiting for the necessary technological changes to roll out this feature,” Mr. Mohanty said.
