The regulator also plans to allow subscribers who join after 60 years of age to continue their NPS accounts till 75.
National Pension System (NPS) launched in 2009 mainly caters to organised sector employees including all government employees in centre and states.
The Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is planning to increase the maximum age of entry into the National Pension System (NPS) by five years to 70. The limit was last raised from 60 to 65 three years ago.
The regulator also plans to allow subscribers who join after 60 years of age to continue their NPS accounts till 75. The maturity age will remain 70 for others.
“Around 15,000 people above 60 joined NPS since the entry age limit was raised from to 65 three years ago,” PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said at a virtual press conference on April 15.
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PFRDA is also proposing to raise the limit of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh as the maximum corpus one can walk away with at the time of retirement or exit of the scheme, without the need to purchase an annuity.
The rationale behind this is that a corpus over Rs 5 lakh and mandatory purchase of annuity can offer a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 per month.
As of now there are as many as 12 insurance providers empanelled with the PFRDA to offer annuity products and there are eight pension fund managers that invest the subscribers’ fund in various schemes chosen by them.
The pension fund managers on board the PFRDA have generated returns of 12.03 percent in equity schemes; corporate bonds 10.02 percent; government securities (G-sec) 9.66 percent since the inception of NPS in 2009.
Funds invested in central and state government schemes have generated returns of 9.94 percent and 9.83 percent respectively over these nearly 12 years.
PFRDA runs two flagship pension schemes– National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
It registered a growth of 23 percent in its overall subscriber base to over 4.24 crore (424.40 lakh) as of March 31. The assets under management grew by 38 percent to Rs 5,78,025 crore.
National Pension System (NPS) launched in 2009 mainly caters to organised sector employees including all government employees in centre and states. APY, launched in 2015, is mainly meant for the employees working in the unorganised sector in the country.
