With an objective of bringing in transparency, efficiency and to enable beneficiaries to get their entitlement directly in a convenient and seamless manner, Aadhaar card has been constituted as the primary document in identification of the beneficiary under the Aadhaar Act which came into effect from 12th September 2016.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has now been included under the Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. As per the provisions of the Act, any individual who is eligible to receive benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrolment under Aadhaar authentication. A copy of the notification is attached.

Accordingly, an APY subscriber will have to get the Aadhaar number recorded  in his or her APY pension account and also in his/ her savings account where the periodic pension contribution instalments are debited and government co-contribution is to be credited. In case a subscriber is not yet having an Aadhaar card, he/ she should immediately get him/ her enrolled for the Aadhaar card for which he or she can visit the nearest Aadhaar enrolment centre. The list of all such centers is available on UIDAI website, www.uidai.gov.in.

PFRDA has identified nearly 12.35 lakh subscribers who are eligible for Government of India co-contribution for an amount upto ₹ 1000 for the financial year 2016-17 which will be released to the eligible subscribers’ savings bank accounts which are seeded with Aadhaar. These subscribers are advised to approach their Bank or Postal Branch for seeding their Aadhar Number.

In the recent times, various new initiatives like online viewing of Statement of Transactions (SOT) and online PRAN card under APY have been taken up by PFRDA for facilitating subscribers under the scheme.

Atal Pension Yojana currently has more than 54 lacs subscribers with an asset base of more than ₹ 2,200 crores.

Aadhaar linkage required for scheme benefits; APY subscribers must promptly seed Aadhaar to receive entitlements. Inclusion of Atal Pension Yojana under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act requires APY beneficiaries to furnish Aadhaar or enroll and to have their Aadhaar recorded in both their APY pension account and the savings account used for contributions and receipt of government co-contribution; PFRDA identified eligible subscribers for co-contribution and advises seeding of Aadhaar, while introducing online transaction statements and PRAN card facilitation.