‘We Are Committed Towards The Orderly Growth Of NPS & Strives For A Pensioned Society’

Tell us a bit about the growth trajectory of the NPS in recent times. Have you seen the pace picking up this year?
In the F.Y 2017-2018 the total no. of subscribers under NPS has increased from 154.40 lacs to 211.78 lacs (growth of 37.16%) and the AUM has also seen a healthy growth from Rs.1,74,560 crores to Rs. 2,34,578.87 crores (growth of 34.38%). PFRDA has crossed the mile stone of 1 Crore Subscribers under the Atal Pension Yojana.

As on 1 September 2018, NPS (including APY) has 2.28 Crore of subscribers with an AUM of 2.61 lakh crore.

PFRDA is committed towards the orderly growth of NPS and strives for a pensioned society. Efforts are in progress to bring all the State government employees under NPS and ensure accumulation of pension corpus for providing sustainable pension to subscribers.

Tell us about some of the digital initiatives that the PFRDA has taken recently, to boost the growth of the NPS
Few digital initiatives done by PFRDA are:

*  24/7 Online accessibility of pension account through web or mobile app.

*  Paperless NPS account opening with Aadhar and e-signing with Aadhar authentication.

*  Online contributions to pension account  using net banking or debit/credit cards

*  Online activation of Tier-II account.

*  Online changing of pension fund.

*  Online revision of asset allocation.

*  Online submission of partial withdrawals requests.

*  Online updation of profile, address, mobile nos.

*  Online password generation for account access.

*  Online downloading of pension account statement.

*  Online updation of Aadhaar and FATCA declaration.

*  Online withdrawal request from Tier-II

What led to the launch of the “Pension Sanchay” website? Is it aimed at supplying information purely related to retirement planning, or to financial planning as a whole?
“Sanchay” is a Hindi term which means ACCUMULATION. 

From a retirement planning perspective the importance of accumulation arises from the fact that, as the name implies, this is the stage in which a person starts accumulates wealth for different goals like house, marriage, child, children’s education and of course, his/her retirement. 

As the pension regulator assigned with the mammoth task of financial literacy of the masses in matters related to retirement planning and also entrusted with the overarching mandate of developing the pension sector, PFRDA has chosen the name Pension Sanchay as the name of the website and also as its mascot. 

The website, Pension Sanchay, provides a reference to topics and fundamental elements and concepts related to money, financial planning and retirement planning.

Do you plan to launch a 100% equity option within the NPS anytime soon? 
Recently PFRDA has increased the cap on equity asset class under Active Choice to 75 per cent from 50 per cent. Now both Active Choice and Auto Choice (LC-75) subscribers can choose a maximum of 75 per cent equity exposure in the portfolio.

PFRDA consistently reviews the features of NPS based on stakeholder feedback and strive to provide the best solutions and experiences to its subscribers.

Please tell us a bit about some ways that your team is working to make the NPS more user friendly
PFRDA has established the framework and the infrastructure to regulate and supervise NPS/APY and presently an amount of Rs 2.61 lakh crore of pension corpus belonging to 2.28 crore subscribers are being prudently supervised by PFRDA.

We are adopting in NPS/APY the digital advancements for providing ease of accessibility by subscribers and operations of intermediaries regulated by PFRDA.

PFRDA is observant of the best practices in the pension sphere across the globe and implements policies that are beneficial to the system and its subscribers.

The initiatives taken at PFRDA to make NPS more user friendly are:

* 24/7 Online accessibility through web or mobile app.

* Flexible investment choices. Option to change pension fund once in a year and asset allocation twice in a year.

* Introduction of two new life cycle funds.

* Increase in equity exposure from 50% to 75%

* Age of entry extended from 60 to 65 years

* Flexible exit options viz. staggered withdrawal of lumpsum, deferment of annuity by  3 years, option to continue upto 70 years

* Partial withdrawals after 3 years in case of exigencies

* Enabling t ransfer of individual employee amount from recognised Provident Fund / Superannuation funds to NPS.

* Minimum contribution in a financial year reduced from Rs. 6000/- to Rs. 1000/- for NPS – Private Sector

* Online activation of Tier-II account

* Online contribution and online exit request submission.

* Charges for unfreezing the NPS account has been dispensed with

Many investors are still confused about how to go about investing into the NPS. Do you see the eNPS platform changing that?
Understanding the importance of providing electronic accessibility to the existing and prospective subscribers, an online platform (eNPS) was hosted through NPS Trust.

Through the eNPS online platform,  individuals  can   open his/her Individual  Pension  Account  under  NPS (Tier-I  &  Tier-II) and  the  new or existing   subscribers   can   make initial   or   subsequent contributions respectively to   their Individual  Pension  Account  using  net banking  and  debit/credit  cards.

We have observed that eNPS share in the new subscriber registration has gradually increased to approx. 45 per cent, which itself explains that eNPS has helped in increasing the accessibility to the target group.

Lastly, please do tell us a bit about PFRDA’s targets for the next 5 years, in terms of new users, AUM and such
India is considered a young country with average age of population being around 36 years. However, gradually the demography will change with more number of population ageing.  By 2050, every fifth Indian will be sexagenarian compared to one in 12 today.

The challenges that needs to be addressed is to increase the coverage of pension currently available through NPS, EPS, insurance plans etc.

Inculcating the habit of savings for retirement among the young population is achievable through awareness creation, increasing financial literacy and making pension products accessible through greater out-reach.

PFRDA is committed towards achieving its goal of having a pensioned society in India.