'NPS' non-govt subscriber base crosses 3 mn-mark; corpus to hit Rs 1 trn'

The corporate and retail sector subscriber base under the NPS has crossed over 30 lakh as on date, and the corpus under these is about to reach a landmark Rs 1 lakh crore-mark, PFRDA Chairman said

The corporate and retail sector subscriber base under the National Pension System (NPS) has crossed over 30 lakh as on date, and the corpus under these is about to reach a landmark Rs 1 lakh crore-mark, PFRDA Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday.

NPS subscriber base data has five categories central government, state government, corporate, all citizen model, and NPS Lite. The 'all citizen model' refers to retail customers.

The government sector people joins NPS because they have the mandate to join it; but in the retail sector, people have the choice to join it or not. And, the number of people joining from this segment is going up, the chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) said on Tuesday.

"As of August 14, the non-government sector, which is the corporate and all citizen model, we have seen that the total onboarding (of subscribers) has crossed three million. In this, retail is a big landmark for us.

"Three years ago, our subscriber was just about 13-13.5 lakh (March 2018) in retail and corporate," he told reporters at a virtual press meet.

So, in three years, the numbers under these two categories have actually more than doubled, the chairman said.

He added that the retail customers are serious investors as they are staying invested, which is reflected in the amount that they have contributed.

"The total corpus by the corporate and retail segment has reached over Rs 97,000 crore. So, it is also reaching the landmark figure of Rs 1 lakh crore," Bandyopadhyay said.

The corporate subscriber base stands at 11.97 lakh as of August 14, 2021, as against 6.96 lakh by March 2018. The subscribers under the all citizen model or retail segment reached 18.06 lakh, up from 6.92 lakh three years ago.

The subscription under NPS Lite is not permitted from April 1, 2015, and the subscriber base under this category stands at 42.92 lakh as on date.