Bajpai committee report likely next month: PFRDA

Interim pension regulator PFRDA today said that Bajpai-headed committee report on overhauling the structure of all citizens' pension scheme is expected next month.

"The Bajpai committee report we should be having in a month or so," Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chairman Yogesh Agarwal told reporters on the sidelines of a PHD chamber event.

PFRDA has appointed a committee headed by former Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman G N Bajpai to look into the fee structure and suggest changes of New Pension System (NPS).

Agarwal further said that the committee would look if there was a need to limit the number of fund managers or the sector should be free with some cap on the charges.

"... (The committee will see) whether there is a need for regulatory changes in terms of limiting the number of fund managers or whether we should free the sector and cap the charges. Each pension fund managers can have his own rate structure," Agarwal added.

Initially, the government launched the New Pension System for central government employees, joining service from January 1, 2004, but it was extended to all citizens from May 1, 2009.

However, the citizen pension scheme has received a lukewarm response, with only around 11,000 subscribers having joined the scheme in 16 months.

There are six fund managers for all citizens' scheme- IDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Mahindra, SBI, UTI Asset Management, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Reliance MF- to manage the corpus of customers.