PFRDA scanner on unregulated funds

According to B.S. Bhandari, Member, PFRDA, beside NPS and EPFO, there are gratuity funds, super annuity funds and provident funds which seek tax exemptions from CBDT

The country’s pension fund regulator Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is mulling is exploring the possibility of regulating superannuation funds that are at present not regulated by any regulator and iscollecting information before it firms up the approach to deal with suchentities.  

The pension landscape in the country is varied, there are pension funds (NPS), there is EPFO, In addition to that the life insurance companies and the mutual funds are alsobringing pension plan and retirement plans.

Beside all these there are gratuity funds,  According to B.S. Bhandari, Member, PFRDA, beside NPS and EPFO, there are gratuity funds, super annuity funds and provident funds which seek tax exemptions from Central Board of Direct Taxation(CBDT).

“Thesefall in grey areas, there is no regulator as such who is monitoringwhether things are happening properly, whether the subscriber’s interests are being protected and they follow the guidelines,” he said.

At present, the PFRDA is regulating National Pension System (NPS), subscribed by employees of Government of India, State Governments and by employees of private institutions/organizations & unorganized sectors. The newly launched Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is also administered byPFRDA.

“We have written to some of the entities and companies. We are now collecting information on this matter beforedeciding how to proceed," he said. The Reserve Bank of India had suggested a single regulator for all pension products in its Financial Stability Report (FSR) which was published yesterday. “The current fragmented and heterogeneous pension sector could pose some challenges for effective regulation and supervision resulting in regulatory arbitrage and regulatory gaps which may have an impact on the stability of systems,” the report hadsaid.

PFRDA has set an ambitious target of having 2 croresubscribers by 2015-end under Atal Pension Yajona (APY). At present, it has enrolled about 3 lakh subscribers under the scheme.

While the target isambitious, Bhandari said, “ The system has been put in place to handle suchlarge volume of subscribers. We expect more subscribers to be enrolled as awareness about the scheme increases.