Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) in its endeavor to promote NPS among the Corporates have embarked upon conducting NPS Workshops at various locations across the country. A Corporate Meet was conducted at Ahmedabad,Gujarat in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Gujarat State Council.

Addressing the participants, Shri Akhilesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager, PFRDA informed them about the longevity scenario across the world and the need of pension in old age and sounded the importance of pension to be considered by everyone. National Pension System (NPS) promoted by the Central Government provides the platform to every segment of the society for savings for retirement and briefed the contours of NPS for old age income security. He requested the participants to utilize this meet for better understanding of NPS and implementing the same in their respective organizations. He highlighted the key factor of low cost pension product – NPS for a valuable pension in the old age. 

Shri Kumar Sharadindu, MD & CEO, SBI Pension Fund Management Company Limited briefed the role of the Pension Funds under NPS architecture and the benefits of long term investment and the optimal return being generated by the Pension Fund following the investment guidelines issued by PFRDA.

Dr Param Shah, Head, FICCI Gujarat State Council in his welcome address lauded the efforts of PFRDA for organizing such meetings across the country and creating awareness about NPS which can be effective platform for corporates to provide pension to their employees.

As on 09^th June 2017, more than 6.09 lacs employees of 3,593 Registered Corporates have joined NPS under NPS Corporate Model. More than 4.62 lacs subscribers have joined NPS under NPS-All Citizen Model. The overall number of NPS and APY subscribers have crossed 1.60 crores with overall Asset under Management (AUM) of more than 1,87,000 crores.

More than 80 participants from around 50 corporates attended the workshop. Ahmedabad / Gujarat based POPs were also present for the workshop. PFRDA official gave a detailed presentation on NPS and informed the participants about the features, benefits and the process of joining NPS to the employees as well as to the employers. Official of Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP gave a presentation on Tax benefits of NPS as compared to other financial products. Two Ahmedabad based Registered Corporates- namely Adani Power and Arvind Limited, informed the participants about their experience of facilitating NPS to their employees and the need and benefits of implementing NPS in the organization.

PFRDA officials clarified the queries regarding joining of NPS, tax benefits, POPs details, timelines, transfer of superannuation fund to NPS, annuity etc to the participants.

The recent developments under NPS-Private Sector (All citizen and Corporate) are listed below:

 i.    Process of Transfer of Superannuation / Recognised Provident Fund to National Pension System.

 ii.    Allowing option to change the investment choice or asset allocation ratio  twice in a financial year 

 iii.  Dispensing of requirement of submission of physical application form in case of subscriber opening account online and e-Signing the document.

 iv.  Introduction of Alternative Investment Fund-a separate class of Asset “A”

 v.   Introduction of two new life cycle funds (LC 75 and LC 25)

 vi.  Under Tier-I account, minimum contribution requirement in a financial year is reduced from ₹ 6,000/- to ₹ 1,000/-

PFRDA’s endeavor is to significantly scale-up these segments during the ongoing months.

National Pension System changes expand corporate uptake and ease compliance for employers and employees widely. PFRDA promoted the National Pension System to corporates, detailing implementation, tax treatment, onboarding, POP roles, annuity and transfer procedures, and reported strong subscription and AUM figures. Regulatory measures introduced include transferability of superannuation and recognised provident funds to NPS; two permitted changes to investment choice per year; acceptance of online account opening with e signing in place of physical forms; a new Alternative Investment Fund asset class 'A'; two lifecycle funds (LC 75 and LC 25); and a reduced Tier I minimum annual contribution requirement.