The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) had issued a Circular dated February 25, 2015, making it mandatory for all the Nodal Offices to process the withdrawal claims of their underlying subscribers on the online platform made available on the Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) system from April 1, 2015. However, it was observed that majority of the withdrawal requests were still being received in physical form (without capturing online withdrawal request) resulting in delay in processing of withdrawal claims of the subscribers. Therefore, it has been decided that with effect from April 1, 2016 only such withdrawal requests raised on online platform will be accepted at CRA for further processing and settlement.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Online withdrawal requirement: only withdrawal requests submitted via the CRA platform will be accepted for processing. Regulatory directive requires subscriber withdrawal requests under the New Pension Scheme to be initiated on the Central Recordkeeping Agency online platform; only online-originated requests will be accepted by the CRA for processing and settlement from the announced operational cut off. Nodal Offices must capture and submit withdrawal claims via the CRA online system, and physical submission of withdrawal requests to the CRA will not be entertained after the cut off.