CIRCULAR

CIR no. PFRDA/2020/ 50/SUP-CRA/21

November 13, 2020

To,
All stakeholders under NPS

Sub.: Revision in cut off time under D Remit for same day NAV

Vide Circular no. PFRDA/ 2020/ 44/ SUP-CRA/17 dated 01st Oct 2020, PFRDA had introduced the D-Remit facility for the subscribers of all the sectors of NPS wherein they could deposit their voluntary contributions with greater ease by creating a static virtual ID linked to their Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN), and get same day’s NAV, provided contributions are received at Trustee Bank till 8.30 am.

2) Effective from 12th November 2020, the said timing has been revised and now the voluntary contributions received at Trustee Bank till 9.30 am. on any bank working day (other than Saturday, Sunday and Holidays) would be considered for giving the subscriber the same day’s NAV. The contributions received post 9.30 am. shall be considered for next working day NAV.

3) The users of 0-Remit may also note that the cut-off time as mentioned above is for the amount received at specified Trustee Bank’s Account and accordingly the remittance can be effected from the respective Subscribers Bank Account with sufficient margin, so that Trustee Bank receives the amount before 9 .30 am.

This circular is issued in exercise of powers conferred under Section 14 of PFRDA Act , 2013 to protect the interests of the Subscribers is available at PFRDA’s website (www.pfrda.org.in) under Regulatory Framework in the Circular Section.

(K Mohan Gandhi)
General Manager

Source: PFRDA

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PENSION FUND REGULATORY
AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
B-141A. Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhawan,
Outub Institutional Area.
Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-110016
Ph : 011-26517501, 26517503, 26133730
Fax 011-26517507 Website: www.pfrda.org.in

CIR No.: PFRDA/2020 /49/SUP-CRA/20

Date: November 12, 2020

To
AD Stake Holders under Govt. Sector NPS
(Central Govt. /State Govt. /Central Autonomous Bodies/ State Autonomous Bodies)

Subject: Option for Govt. employees to on-board NPS through eNPS  (Stake Holder Feedback)

e-NPS is the online NPS on boarding portal hosted by the Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) wherein a Subscriber can register and contribute online into NPS. Through eNPS, a Subscriber can register under NPS, generate a Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) under All Citizens of India and Corporate Sectors. Further, the Subscribers who have already been registered under NPS across sectors with active PRAN can make contributions through eNPS as well as activate their Tier II account. The prospective NPS Subscribers under private sector can register in e-NPS either through ‘Aadhaar Offline e-KYC’ or through ‘PAN & Bank Account

2. At present, the Government sector Subscribers are registered under NPS either through submission of physical form to CRAs or through online processes viz. OPGIVI (Online PRAN Generation Module ) adopted by the Nodal Offices of Govt. Now, PFRDA is exploring the possibility to enable e-NPS platform as an additional option to Government Sector employees to facilitate their online onboarding under NPS. Accordingly, the employees of Government Sector will have option to register under NPS through e-NPS. Further, an existing Subscriber of other sectors. on entering into the Government sector, shall have an option to shift to Government sector through e-NPS.

3. The proposed methodology is placed at Annexure I.

4. The proposed mode of e-NPS based registration of Govt Sector employees bring the following benefits to the stakeholders:

• i. Ease of on boarding for employees and online verification/ authorization of employee NPS information by nodal officers.
• ii. Paperless process of enrollment with e-Sign/OTP.
• iii. Easing the work of Nodal officers from manual process of Acct opening and freeing them from handling papers and associated challenges of dispatching the physical forms to CRA.
• iv. Optimizing the cost of Acct opening by end to end digitization.
• v. Expediting the account opening process compared to existing modes of account opening methods made available to the Government sector.
• vi. Timely PRAN generation and hence timely deposit of NPS contribution which would lead to higher investment benefits.
• vii. Since the employees fill the data in e-NPS portal themselves while on-boarding, data entry error may come down and consequently the decline in rejection of forms.
• viii. Currently, CRA-FC services are also utilized by SG/CG for data entry /digitization which may be prone to data entry error which results in return/re-submission of forms.
• ix. The logistical cost associated with submitting physical forms by subscribers to nodal officers, by nodal officers to CRA-FC and resubmitting the return forms will be avoided.
• x. Covid pandemic induced immobility leading to piling up of CSRF at Govt. offices can be overcome.
• xi. Few State Govt. depts. are advising their new employees to open acct under UoS and carry out Inter Sector Shifting (ISS) thereafter which increases the cost of account opening and turn around time.
• xii. By enabling eNPS onboarding for Govt employees, ISS can also be carried out seamlessly.

5. In view of the above, PFRDA invites comments/ suggestions/ feedback from all the Government nodal offices on this proposal (Option for Govt employees to join NPS through e NPS). as per the format attached as Annexure II

6. The comments can be e-mailed to sup-cra@pfrda.org.in or through a letter before 15th December 2020.

K Mohan Gandhi
(General Manager)

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PFRDA

CIRCULAR

CIR No.: PFRDA/2020/24/SUP-POP/3

June 16, 2020

To,

All Point of Presence (PoPs) under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) / NSDL-CRA

Subject: Processing of death claims requests under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in view of Covid 19 pandemic – reg.

Considering the difficulties faced by Point of Presence under Atal Pension Yojana (hereinafter referred as ‘PoP-APY’) in processing of death claim requests due to Covid-19 pandemic, it has been decided to ease the processing of death claim requests.

2. In this respect, it is advised as under:

Also read: Refund of the expense of ‘Pulse Oximeter’ for the COVID-19 family Positive CGHS Beneficiary under Home Treatment

• PoP-APY shall duly verify and attest the documents of death claim requests and submit the scanned copies of all requisite documents through their registered e-mail ID to NSDL-CRA.
• PoP-APY shall also submit, through their registered email ID, a declaration stating ‘All requisite physical documents shall be submitted to CRA by July 31, 2020.’
• NSDL-CRA shall accept these scanned documents alongwith declaration as above, submitted by PoP-APY, for processing the same as per the applicable guidelines.
• The above process is adopted on an exception basis till June 30, 2020.

3. This circular is issued under Section 14 of PFRDA Act, 2013 and is
available in ‘Circulars’ section of Regulatory Framework at PFRDA’s website.

(Sumeet Kaur Kapoor)
Chief General Manager

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PENSION FUND REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
B-14/A, Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhawan,
Qutub Institutional Area,
Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi-110016

No: PFRDA/2019/24/PDES/5

Date: 17th December 2019

Circular

Subject: Clarification – Enrollment of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) in NPS.

1. This is in continuation to the Circular No: PFRDA/2019/19 /PDES/3 dated 29th Oct, 2019 on the above subject whereby the Authority permitted Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) to enroll in National Pension System (NPS) at par with Non-Resident Indians (NRI).
2. Based on the communication received from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), it is hereby clarified that Annuity payable by ASPs to NRIs and OCIs will be taxed at source, at rates applicable as per the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements) of the country where the annuitant resides.
3. Hence the intermediaries including Annuity Service Providers (ASPs) are required to display/ convey to the prospective and existing subscribers that ‘Annuities payable to NRI/ OCI are subject to TDS and ‘repatriation of the corpus, if any, will be subject to applicable laws and regulatory provisions of IRDAI/ PFRDA/ RBI in their relevant marketing materials / website(s) / brochures / communications.

Also check: Good news for NPS employees

Mono MG Phukon
(General Manager)

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25 JUN 2019

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has submitted a proposal to increase the limit of pension and age under Atal Pension Yojana (APY). The same is under examination in consultation with PFRDA.

The number of beneficiaries under APY in last three years, State-wise, are as per Annexure A.

Atal Pension Yojana(APY) is open to all citizens of India between 18-40 years of age. Accordingly, Mudra beneficiaries, Self Help Group (SHG) members and Anganwadi workers who are citizen of India and fall between 18-40 years of age are eligible to join APY.

This was stated by the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharamanin a written reply to a Parliament Question in Rajya Sabha today.

PIB

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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

04-May-2018 16:18 IST

Important Announcements and Approvals in Board Meeting of PFRDA
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is established by the Government of India for regulation and development of Pension Sector in order to protect the old age income security of subscribers. PFRDA takes various initiatives from time to time in order to simplify and improve the operational issues in National Pension System (NPS) like new functionality development under NPS architecture, simplification of account opening, withdrawal, grievance management etc.

In this regard, during the recently held Board Meeting some important decisions were taken to improve the operational and regulation issues in National Pension System (NPS). Some of the decisions taken in the Board Meeting are as follows:

• Budget announcement- Rating criteria for investments- Proposal on changing the investment grade rating from ‘AA’ to ‘A’ for corporate bonds was approved. The change is subject to a cap on investments in ‘A’ rated bonds to be not more than 10% of the overall Corporate Bond portfolio of the Pension Funds. This initiative will enlarge the scope of investment for the Fund Managers while ensuring credit quality.
• Introduction of a Common Stewardship Code: The proposal on adoption of Common Stewardship Code, as a measure of good Corporate Governance, was approved. Further, it was also approved that the Principles enumerated in such code shall be circulated to all Pension Funds for compliance and implementation. Adoption of these Principles by Pension Funds will improve their engagement with investee companies and benefit subscribers.
• Modification in Partial Withdrawal rules under NPS: Partial withdrawals will now be allowed to NPS subscribers who wish to improve their employability or acquire new skills by pursuing higher education/ acquiring professional and technical qualifications. Further, individual NPS subscribers who wish to set up a new business/ acquire new business will also be allowed to make partial withdrawals from his contributions. Other terms applicable to partial withdrawals will remain unchanged.
• Increasing cap on equity investment in active choice to 75% from current 50% for Private Sector Subscribers: Presently there is a cap of 50% on equity investment under active choice in NPS. The proposal on increasing cap on equity investment in active choice to 75% from currently 50% has been approved by the Board. However, it comes with a clause of tapering of the equity allocation after the age of 50 years.
• Currently, NPS and APY have a cumulative subscriber base of over 2.13 crore with total Asset Under Management (AUM) of more than Rs. 2.38 lakh crore.

Source: PIB

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Monthly Payroll Data released for the first time

Numbers indicate the efforts made by the Government on job creation and formalization of the economy.

26 APR 2018

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and the Pension fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) have released payroll data.

India has, for the first time, introduced monthly payroll reporting for the formal sector to facilitate analysis of new and continuing employment.

The payroll data, categorized age-wise, for the months September, 2017 to February, 2018 has been released on 25th April, 2018.

The numbers from these three organisations are an eye opener and put an end to all speculations and conjectures regarding job creation in the economy. They also strengthen the efforts made by the Government on job creation and formalization of the economy.

There are other organisations also, such as ICAI, Bar Council, Medical Council and other professional bodies which could have such monthly data for payroll reporting for their professionals.

Data released by EPFO shows that during September, 2017 to February, 2018, 31.10 lakh new additions across all age groups were made in the payroll. Given that the data for recent months is provisional due to continuous updation of employee records, this could be called a conservative estimate. The actual figures may well be more than this.

From the PFRDA, the New Pension Scheme (NPS) data indicates generation of 4.2 lakh new payroll during the given period, that too only from Tier-I account. NPS currently manages the corpus of around 50 lakh employees in State and Central government. For this study the Central and State autonomous bodies have been shown under Central and State governments respectively, while non-government refers to the corporate sector employees.

From the above two organisations itself, 35.3 lakh new payrolls were generated during this six month period.

In addition, the ESIC data also mirrors the payroll growth shown in the other two sets of data from EPFO and PFRDA. Since ESIC data is not Aadhar seeded there is further scope of some modifications.

The payroll data from these three organisations would now be released every month. Given that till now there was no such system in place, this data would provide a more firm basis for various analysis and studies of the economy, job creation, as also aid in policy making. We may as well as bid goodbye to the days of analyses based on random sample surveys. Hopefully this would also end the debate regarding and criticisms about jobless growth in the economy.

A more constructive phase of focusing on deriving the most out of this data for furthering development should now begin.

PIB

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Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has taken several initiatives in the past few years to increase pension coverage in the country, notably introducing e-NPS, reducing minimum contribution levels, new investment instruments, aggressive life cycle funds etc.

PFRDA has now taken a further step in this direction by increasing the incentives payable to Points of Presence (POPs), the principal distributive points for National Pension System (NPS).

The following Table gives the details of increase in incentives:

*Changes effected A new incentive towards increasing persistency has been introduced under which POPs will receive an incentive of Rs. 50/- per account per annum for every account which continues to contribute a minimum of Rs 1000/- in a financial year.

PFRDA believes that the renewed incentive will help in increasing the reach of pensions in India, through the efforts of Points of presence (POPs).

PIB

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Secretary DFS: Still Scope for increasing pension coverage

Atal Pension Yojana currently has over 69 lacs subscribers with contribution of Rs. 2690.00 crores. Chairman, PFRDA Shri Hemant G Contractor however emphasised the need of increasing the pension coverage in India at a recently concluded conference on Atal Pension Yojana. The conference organised by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in the national capital saw participation from all major banks, representatives from NPCI, SCHIL, SIDBI, Access Assist and some major MFIs.

A large section of the society still does not have access to pensions and this is a cause of concern for PFRDA and Government, Shri Contactor said. Congratulating the winners of the contest organised by PFRDA the Chairman said that APY has made progress in covering the intended subscribers but much remains to be done. He mentioned that on an average, a little less than 2% of the eligible population is covered under APY and hence a lot has to be done to provide people a regular access to old age income. He also touched upon the issues of persistence in the APY accounts and asserted that the objective of the scheme is to provide pension and this will only happen if the contribution in the account has been regularly paid. He urged the APY Service Providers to educate the subscribers on the importance of the same. He also urged upon the APY Service Providers i.e Banks and Post Offices under Department of Post to achieve the targets allocated by government by putting in their best efforts.

A video message of Shri Rajiv Kumar, Secretary DFS was played during the occasion. Shri Rajiv Kumar mentioned that Atal Pension Yojana is flagship program of the Government of India under financial inclusion and financial security. The pension coverage in this country is at around 12% and banks and other stakeholder need to work towards greater coverage under the scheme. He also said that DFS is monitoring the progress under the scheme and targets allocated under the scheme to banks should be accomplished. He touched upon the subject of providing a digital platform for APY by PFRDA i.e e-APY. Secretary Shri Rajiv Kumar congratulated the banks on their performance under the campaigns and urged them to continue the work.

While the government has a pension scheme for the BPL persons but the amount is meagre and is not sufficient for old age needs. 9% of the population of India, i.e 110 million people are over 60 years and by 2030 this figure is expected to cross 180 million. The 60 plus age groups is the fastest growing demographic in the country. With increase in longevity of the people, disintegration of the joint family system in India and inflation, there is greater need for old age than ever before. Currently pension benefits are available India basically to the organised sector. Atal Pension Yojana introduced in 2015 by Government of India provides a self- contributory savings pension scheme with guaranteed pension of Rs. 1,000/- to Rs. 5,000/- with a very low contribution by the subscriber. All banks and Department of Post have pushed the product to the interiors of the country. APY has option for increasing the pension amount from Rs. 1000/- to any other amount up to Rs. 5000/- as per the savings capacity of the subscriber, and further allows the spouse to continue the account in the event of the death of the subscriber before the age of sixty years. PFRDA has also been engaging with various State Governments for providing co-contribution under the scheme. With the introduction of e-APY through Aadhaar, the banks will be able to effectively utilise the digital platform for greater coverage.

PIB

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A total of 3.07 lac APY accounts have been sourced under One Nation One Pension. The stellar performance of the banks under the campaign includes some of the largest banks in the country namely, State Bank of India sourcing a stupendous 51,000 APY accounts and other prominent banks like Canara Bank which has sourced 32,306 APY accounts, Andhra Bank at 29,057 APY accounts, in other private banks category, Karnataka Bank at 2641 APY accounts, in RRB’s category, Allahabad UP Gramin Bank at 28,609 accounts followed by Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank at 5,056 APY accounts , Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank at 3,013 APY accounts, Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank at 2,847 APY accounts & Punjab Gramin Bank at 2,194 APY accounts.

At a time when the interest rate on various financial instruments including Savings Bank is declining, Atal Pension Yojana as a pension scheme offers a guaranteed rate of 8% assured return for the subscribers and also the opportunity of higher earnings in case the rate of return is higher than 8% at the time of maturity, after staying invested in the scheme for 20-42 years. Increasing enrolment is attributed to financialisation of assets and driving the people to pension products which has Govt of India implicit guarantee to give an assured pension to the subscriber, spouse and return of corpus to the nominee.

Department of Financial Services in association with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has been organizing various APY campaigns to give thrust through which the population not covered by any pension scheme is approached by APY Service Provider banks and Department of Posts to inform about the salient features and benefits of the APY scheme and are encouraged to get enrolled in the scheme. PFRDA organised a National Level Pension Mobilization Campaign ” One Nation One Pension” from 2nd August to 19th August 2017 in association with the APY Service Provider Banks all over the country. 62 lacs subscribers have become members of the Atal Pension Yojana till date in 2 years after launch of the scheme.

The objective of PFRDA is to cover the maximum possible population uncovered by any pension scheme under the APY scheme so that India as a nation can move from a pension less to a pensioned society and the citizens can live a life of dignity in their vulnerable years.

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