No early partial withdrawal under NPS: PFRDA

NPS has total corpus of 52.57 lakh subscribers with total corpus of Rs 35,000 crore

The Pension Fund Regulatory  and Development Authority (PFRDA) has ruled out option of partial withdrawal of funds from the National Pension System (NPS) corpus, before maturity. Earlier, reports had surfaced claiming the the regulator was considering to allow 'partial early exit' in certain cases.

PFRDA chairman Yogesh Agarwal told reporters that early exits will not be allowed. “No, there is no such consideration,” he said here on Friday. He was attending a event organised by MCC chamber of Commerce.   

Currently, partial withdrawals are not allowed in NPS. The NPS has a total corpus of 52.57 lakh subscribers with a total corpus of Rs 35,000 crore. According to him last year, NPS had given 12-15% returns.

NPS is run by the finance ministry, with no contribution from the government and no guaranteed benefits to subscribers.  Returns are related to the performance of th Sensex. The Employees’ Pension Scheme is run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a statutory body under the labour ministry.

According to an industry member who was present at the meeting said there was pressure on the regulator to allow this for emergency situations like medical cases.  

When asked about the need of increasing  foreign direct investment limit in the pension funds, Agarwal termed the matter as a 'non -issue'.

 g Our capital  requirement is about Rs 200 crore. Either of 26% or 49% FDI in pension funds is OK. Its a non issue compared to the need of capital in insurance industry,” he added.  

On the other hand, he said West Bengal along with Tripura were the only state not enrolled under the NPS. “I had spoken to state FM Amit Mitra about this but not much of response was generated in this regard. Mitra had told only Mamata Banerjee  can take a call on this but so far we have not received any communication from them,” added Agarwal.