National Pension Scheme incentives for PoPs hiked

In a move to increase the coverage of the National Pension Scheme (NPS), pension regulator PFRDA on Friday raised the incentives payable to Points of Presence (PoPs), or the branches, that service the NPS scheme.

Following earlier initiatives, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has taken a new initiative to increase pension coverage by increasing the incentives payable to PoPs, the principal distributive points for NPS, a Finance Ministry release said.

It said a new incentive towards increasing "persistency" has been introduced, under which PoPs will receive an incentive of Rs 50 per account per annum for every account which continues to contribute a minimum of Rs 1,000 in a financial year.

PFRDA has also increased to Rs 200 from Rs 125 the charge payable for initial registration services.

The charges of eNPS service for subsequent contributions have been increased from 0.05 per cent of the contribution to 0.10 per cent.

The PFRDA believes that the renewed incentive will help in increasing the reach of pensions in India, through the efforts of POPs, the statement said.

The PFRDA-appointed PoPs provide various services to subscribers, such as opening of Permanent Retirement Account and contributing to NPS, at various locations through their network of branches called PoP Service Providers.

--IANS

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