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Journalism of Courage
In a bid to popularise the Atal Pension Yojana among informal sector workers, the finance ministry on Thursday announced that it has modified the scheme to allow subscribers to make contributions on a monthly, quarterly or half yearly basis and has also permitted early exit before the age of 60 years.
“To increase the acceptability of the scheme amongst informal sector workers, the individual subscribers shall have an option to make the contribution on a monthly, quarterly or half yearly basis instead of on a monthly basis earlier,” said an official release.
At present, subscribers have to make a monthly contribution under the scheme, which can be automatically debited from the individual’s bank account. The finance ministry has also significantly modified the provisions for discontinuation of contribution “in favour of the subscriber”, allowing for delayed deactivation as well .
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“The account will not be deactivated and closed till the account balance with self-contributions minus the government co-contributions become zero due to deduction of account maintenance charges and fees,” it said. The penalty on delayed payment has been also simplified to Rs 1 per month for contribution of Rs 100 for each delayed monthly payment.]
Similarly, premature exit from the scheme before 60 years of age was not permitted, barring exceptional circumstances, the statement said adding, “now the modified provision permits the subscriber to voluntarily exit with conditions.”
The subscriber will only be refunded the contributions made by him to APY, along with the net actual interest earned on his contributions.
Under the scheme, a subscriber, who must be in the age group of 18-40 years, would receive the fixed pension in the range Rs 1,000-Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years, depending on contribution which would vary at the age of joining.
However, unlike the PMJJBY and the PMSBY, the APY has failed to garner as many subscribers with finance ministry officials blaming the long term and fixed nature of contributions for the lack of its popularity.
6.58 lakh individuals had joined the APY by August 17 as against 2.74 crore enrollments in the PMJJBY and 8.12 crore subscribers in the PMSBY. Finance ministry also launched a website, vidyalakshmi.co.in, for students seeking educational loans and five banks including SBI, IDBI Bank and Bank of India have integrated their system with the portal.
