Banks, insurers, Konkan Railway to join NPS

The New Pension System will get a boost with many banks, insurance companies, Konkan Railway and Damodar Valley Corporation slated to put their retirement corpus into the contributory pension scheme.

"Damodar Valley Corporation and Indian Banks Association are coming in. The Konkan Railway has shown interest. Some insurance companies too are likely to join the scheme. There are lots of companies which are showing interest now," an official with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) told PTI.

The Indian Banks Association, according to the official, has said new bank recruits who join from April 2010 will be included in NPS. Besides, insurance companies are looking at similar provisions for their new employees.

"Companies which do not have the EPFO liability can directly come to us. Those who have EPFO liability can make contribution over and above EPFO," the official said, adding the fund managers would be decided by companies themselves.

There are six fund managers for the citizens' scheme. These include IDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Mahindra, SBI, UTI Asset Management, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Reliance MF.

Initially, the NPS was launched for the Central government employees joining service from January 1, 2004, but from last May it was extended to all citizens.

According to the information available on the PFRDA Website, as many as 8,78,713 subscribers have joined the NPS till last month, which include 5,532 from the unorganised sector. Out of this, a large majority of 6,09,376 subscribers are the Central government employees, apart from 2,55,903 state government employees.

National Aluminium Company was the first public sector undertaking to move its employees retirement funds to the New Pension System to a contribution of 6 per cent of the basic pay into the NPS.