NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, DEC 10
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Executive Director AG Das on Thursday said the government was targeting to double the enrolments under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) from the present 3.58 crore to over 7 crore in two years. In FY21, the total enrollment was at 79 lakh. With the aggressive campaign of all stakeholders, the PFRDA aims to cover one crore more people from the unorganized sector this fiscal.
Talking about Gujarat, Das said Gujarat ranks 10th among states in APY enrolments with over 15 lakh so far. We are targeting to add about 5 lakh enrolments in FY22 in Gujarat as the state has more potential for this scheme’s growth, Das added.
The APY is the government-backed, voluntary scheme meant to provide old-age income security in the form of minimum assured pension. There is an option of getting a fixed pension of Rs 1000, Rs 2000, Rs 3000, Rs 4000, or Rs 5000 on attaining an age of 60. The pension will be determined based on the individual’s age and the contribution amount. The contributor’s spouse can claim the pension upon the contributor’s death and upon the death of both contributor and his or her spouse, the nominee will be given the accumulated corpus.
However, if the contributor dies before completing 60 years of age, the spouse is also given an option to either exit the scheme and claim the corpus or continue the scheme for the balance period. The APY had returns of around 10%.
Das added that more than one family member can apply for APY scheme. Married couples below the age of 39 can apply for the scheme separately. This will ensure a collective pension of Rs 10,000 per month for the couple after the age of 60 years. This is the best social security scheme for the unorganized sector workers who do not have EPF coverage.
Any citizen of India in the age group of 18-40 having Prime Minsiters’ Jan Dhan Yojana bank account can join this scheme. He or she should make contributions for a maximum of 20 years. Other criteria is that linking of Aadhar with the bank account with a valid mobile number.
In order to expand the coverage of Atal Pension Yojana in Gujarat, the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) Gujarat led by Bank of Baroda held a review cum awareness programme in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
The meeting was chaired by AG Das, Executive Director, PFRDA and attended by Director (IF), Finance Dept., Govt. of Gujarat, Dr. Ashish Dongare, Assistant General Manager, PFRDA, officials from various Banks, India Post, Gujarat Livelihood Promotion Co. Ltd. (GLPC), Lead Districts Managers, CEO of Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks’ Federation.
Das, in his key note address emphasised on the need of pension to secure the old age income security, particularly for the individuals from the unorganized sectors. He also congratulated all the Bankers for their excellent performance despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic and appealed the Bankers to continue the good work till the attainment of saturation under APY scheme. He suggested Banks to use technology and Banking Correspondent model to achieve the saturation of APY in the both rural and urban areas of the state.
At present, PSU banks and RRBs have made 18 percent and 16 percent enrolments under APY whereas private banks role was minimal 5 percent. The PFRDA strategy was to tap banks, non-banks, cooperative banks and payment banks to push the APY for the betterment of unorgansied setor workers.
Mahesh Bansal, Convenor, SLBC Gujarat & General Manager, Bank of Baroda welcomed all the participants and urged Banks for expanding scope of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which provides benefits not only to subscribing individuals but also to spouse of subscriber when the subscriber is no more and after the death of subscriber and his / her spouse, the progeny of subscriber also gets the accumulated corpus under the scheme.
On the occasion, Dr. Ashish Dongare, AGM, PFRDA made a detailed presentation on the features and benefits of the scheme and also deliberated on performance of Banks and LDMs. In recognition of efforts under APY scheme, best performing Banks and LDMs were also facilitated during the programme.
The programme concluded with the vote of thanks by Baldev Patel, Head, SLBC Gujarat.
