3 min readAmethi/new Delhi, New DelhiMay 29, 2015 02:06 AM IST
First published on: Mar 11, 2015 at 01:46 AM IST
The government will give guaranteed pension of up to Rs 5,000 a month to subscribers under the proposed Atal Pension Yojana and will also allow members of the NPS Swavalamban to migrate to the new scheme.
“There will be five guaranteed pensions and subscribers can opt to join any of these schemes. At the age of 60, when the plan matures, a person opting for the scheme will get a guaranteed return,” said Hemant Contractor, chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
The schemes would give a minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000, he added.
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Contributions would vary from as little as Rs 48 a month for a Rs 1,000 pension to Rs 248 a month for a pension of Rs 5,000 per month. Individuals between the age of 20 years and 40 years of age with operational bank accounts would be eligible.
The plan to launch the Atal Pension Yojana was announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2015-16. “We will also launch the Atal Pension Yojana, which will provide a defined pension, depending on the contribution, and its period,” he had announced on February 28.
Under the scheme, the government will contribute 50 per cent of the beneficiaries’ premium limited to Rs 1,000 each year, for five years, in the new accounts opened before December 31, 2015. Investments under the proposed scheme would be done on the guidelines of the new investment pattern for pension funds that will be notified from April 1 this year. It is estimated to give a return of at least 8 per cent per year.
To subscribe to the scheme, workers would be expected to have an operational bank account and banks would be the points of presence or aggregators for the scheme. The proposed Atal Pension Yojana will be one of the key issues to be taken up when the finance minister meets public sector banks on Wednesday. Additionally, the 36 lakh subscribers under the existing NPS Swavalamban would have an option to migrate to the scheme. “But unlike the proposed Atal Pension Yojana, the Swavalamban does not provide a minimum guaranteed pension,” Contractor told The Indian Express.
Under the Swavalamban, aimed at unorganised sector workers, the government contributes Rs 1,000 every year for a period of five years who opened accounts between 2010-11 and 2012-13.
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