Govt mulls raising pension limit to up to Rs 10,000/month under APY

The government is considering a proposal to raise the pension limit under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to up to Rs 10,000 per month from the existing slab of up to Rs 5,000, a top official said today.

There is a need to increase the value of pension under APY, Madnesh Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), said at a conference organised by PFRDA.

"We have seen the proposal (sent by PFRDA) of increasing the pension value to (up to) Rs 10,000 per month and it is under our active examination," Mishra said on the sidelines of the event.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman Hemant G Contractor said the proposal has been sent to the finance ministry with an aim to increase the subscriber base of APY.

"Currently, we have five slabs of pension from Rs 1,000-5000 per month. There have been a lot of feedback from the market asking for higher pension amounts because many people feel that Rs 5,000 at the age of 60 years, 20-30 years from now, will not be sufficient.

"We have placed this proposal with the government that it should be increased to up to Rs 10,000," Contractor said.

PFRDA has sent two more proposals to the ministry - auto enrolment for APY and raising the maximum age bar to enter the scheme to up to 50 years.

Currently, the age of entering APY is from 18-40 years but an increase in the same by another 10 years- from 18-50 years - will help in expanding the subscriber base, he added. The subscriber base of APY is 1.02 crore.

PFRDA added about 50 lakh new subscribers under the scheme in 2017-18 and hopes to add another 60-70 lakh in the ongoing financial year, Contractor said.