Retail NPS more than doubles in one year

Post the budgetary provision to provide tax benefits up to 40 per cent of maturity of investment in National Pension Scheme (NPS), the retail segment of NPS has grown by over 100 per cent over the past one year.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman Hemant Contractor told PTI that the new tax benefits provision has drawn a lot of retail investors to the NPS schemes. Earlier, NPS schemes which were launched five years ago, had failed to get retail subscribers.

Retail NPS has grown by over 100 per cent over the past one year. It is another thing that it started with almost a zero base, he said.

The total assets under management of NPS has reached Rs 1.38 trillion, out of which Rs 3,000 crore are of retail assets.

Number of total subscribers, including those who had subscribed for NPS/Swavalamban, are more than the number of government employees who have subscribed for NPS. However, in terms of value and the size of corpus contributed by government employees, it was much less.

"The government subscribers are even less than 40 per cent in terms of number in NPS. Though in terms of value, it was around 87 per cent of the total AUM (assets under management) of NPS which currently stands at Rs 1.38 trillion," he said.

Implementation of Atal Pension Yojana (APY) by banks is a moderate success as they have already opened 32 lakh accounts under APY so far, he said.

It is despite the fact that banks have not come to the government's aspiration when it comes to implementation of APY in the country. So far, we have been able to accumulate Rs 900 crore under APY, he added.

Right now there are seven pension fund managers and the pension fund regulator has already started the move for more players to join.

"We have started the process. We are waiting for the government's decision on expanding the number of pension fund managers managing the government pension fund. We are waiting for the government's decision on the issue," he said, adding "we hope to do it within a month's time."

Talking about revised commission structure for pension fund managers, he said that new commission structure for pension fund managers will also happen simultaneously.

"We will have to float a new request for proposal for the same, the draft for which has already been prepared by us as we are waiting for the government's nod to float the same," he said.