UTI pension fund ropes in Bihar dairy farmers

Over 50,000 dairy farmers of the State Co-operative Milk Federation in Bihar are set to join UTI Mutual Fund's retirement benefit pension fund, making the scheme a unique model that allows unorganised labour force to come under the pension bracket by contributing an amount as low as Rs 200 per month till the age of 55.

UK Sinha, chairman and managing director of UTI Asset Management Company, said the pension fund, originally designed as a tax-saving instrument, was revived to bring in the unorganised workers under the pension ambit.

As milk farmers are expected to join the scheme soon, the fund house has also made reasonable progress with the Indian Farmers' Fertilisers Co-operative Ltd (Iffco) for a similar tieup.

About one lakh farmers each from five districts in the country are expected to join by October. Currently, only 12 per cent of the working class have a formal pension scheme and UTIMF zrgets the unorganised labourers.

Sinha said UTIMF was confident of giving good returns on these savings, going by the scheme's past records.

The pension plan has given a return of 12.64 per cent since its inception in 1993 and this should be compared with the returns of 8 per cent under the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) or the other pension schemes.

Over a working age tenure (from 18 years to 58 years), a 12 per cent return would amount to a lumpsum amount of Rs 19.40 lakh while for a 10 per cent return, the amount would shrink to Rs 11.10 lakh.