NPS logs over 110,000 fresh subscribers in April, reveals NSO data

As many as 110,655 fresh subscribers joined the National Pension System in April, with state government employees constituting nearly two-thirds of these new subscribers, latest data released by the National Statistical Office on Tuesday showed.

Of the total subscribers, 79,876 subscribers belonged to the state governments, while 20,000 subscribers belonged to the central government. On the other hand, only 10,250 subscribers belonged to the corporate segment during the month.

An age-wise analysis showed that 43.8 per cent (48,530) fresh subscribers belonged to the 18-28 age group. This is crucial as subscribers belonging to this age group are usually first-timers in the job market and thus reflect its robustness.

The National Statistical Office released the compiled payroll data on Tuesday after a gap of three months due to the model code of conduct remaining in place.

Overall, 937,000 subscribers joined the National Pension System during FY24, 13.6 per cent higher than the 824,700 subscribers logged in the preceding financial year.

The corporate component of the scheme is voluntary in nature and includes people working in public sector organisations, private limited companies, or public sector banks among others.

The Union government has mandated the National Pension System for all its new employees, hence, this can be used as a proxy to gauge fresh recruitments at the central level. However, since a few states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab had announced a return to the Old Pension Scheme, thereby abandoning the National Pension System, it cannot be used as an exact metric to gauge hirings at the state level.

Managed by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, the National Pension System is designed on a defined contribution basis. Here, both the subscriber and the employer contribute an equal amount to a person’s account. It was made mandatory for all new central government employees from January 1, 2004, except the armed forces.

Since April 2018, the National Statistical Office has been bringing out employment-related statistics in the formal sector, using information on the number of subscribers under the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme, Employees’ State Insurance Scheme, and the National Pension System.