NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 17
National Pension System (NPS), a flagship defined contribution pension scheme of the Government of India, has registered a growth of 30% whereby 1.03 lakh individual subscribers from the private sector and 206 corporates were enrolled during the 1st quarter of FY21-April to June, resulting in a total of 10.13 lac corporate subscribers in the age group of 18 to 65 years, the government said on Friday..
Among the 1,02,975 subscribers registered, 43,000 have routed their subscription through their employer/corporate, while the rest have voluntarily enrolled in the scheme. A total of 206 corporates were enrolled during the first quarter of this fiscal.
“After the onset of COVID-19, employers have adopted or are willing to adopt deeper measures to ensure adequate support to employees in terms of their financial well-being,” the Finance Ministry said in a release.
The latest addition in the subscription base resulted in a total of 10.13 lakh corporate subscribers in the age group of 18 to 65 years, it noted.
The release also said that as per a recent survey of Willis Towers Watson, over 20 percent of employers in the private sector aims to educate employees on retirement adequacy and available savings options, while some companies are focusing on employees approaching retirement by providing independent and unbiased financial advice.
Additionally, about 30 percent of employers are looking to address the impact of the pandemic on employees’ financial and emotional wellbeing due to stress and concerns related to economic conditions and job security.
Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), said the NPS has been a success amongst the corporate employees.
“While financial planning often took a backseat in an individual’s life, this pandemic has brought it to the forefront, creating awareness for financial security at such testing times.
“During this pandemic, a growing realisation for both corporates and individuals has emerged that retirement planning is not a mere saving or tax benefit choice,” he said.
The chairman said the role played by private corporates to take charge of educating the employees about the benefits of NPS is highly appreciable, resulting in an interesting quarter for the pension sector regulator.
“We have also adopted various proactive measures for ensuring uninterrupted services to the subscribers in this period of unexpected crisis,” Bandyopadhyay said.
In its initiative to educate the citizens and to spread awareness about pensions and NPS, PFRDA has been organising webinars in association with industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)., the release said.
As on April 30, 2020, the total number of subscribers under the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana had crossed 3.46 crore and the asset under management (AUM) has grown to Rs 4,33,555 crore.
More than 68 lakh government employees have been enrolled under NPS and 22.60 lakh subscribers are from the private sector, with 7,616 entities registered as corporate.
