Atal Pension Yojana(APY)

 

The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) will be focussed on all citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the National Pension System (NPS) administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme

Benefit of APY
Fixed pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000, if he joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if subscriber joins early and increase if he joins late.

Eligibility for APY
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme.

Age of joining and contribution period
The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. Therefore, minimum period of contribution by the subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more

Enrolment and Subscriber Payment
 All bank account holders under the eligible category may join APY with auto-debit facility to accounts, leading to reduction in contribution collection charges.

Enrolment agencies
All Points of Presence (Service Providers) and Aggregators under Swavalamban Scheme would enrol subscribers through architecture of National Pension System.

Operational Framework of APY
 It is Government of India Scheme, which is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. The Institutional Architecture of NPS would be utilised to enrol subscribers under APY.

Launching
  The APY would be launched from 1st June, 2015. The existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.

Funding of APY
 The benefit of fixed pension would be guaranteed by the Government. Government would provide (i) fixed pension guarantee for the subscribers; (ii) would co-contribute 50% of the subscriber contribution or Rs. 1000 per annum, whichever is lower, to each eligible subscriber account, for a period of 5 years, i.e., from 2015-16 to 2019-20, who join the NPS before 31st December, 2015 and who are not income tax payers and (iii) would also reimburse the promotional and development activities including incentive to the contribution collection agencies to encourage people to join the APY.

Age of Joining, Contribution Levels, Fixed Monthly Pension and Return of Corpus to the nominee of subscribers
 For example, to get a fixed monthly pension between Rs. 1,000 per month and Rs. 5,000 per month, the subscriber has to contribute on monthly basis between Rs 42 and Rs. 210, if he joins at the age of 18 years. For the same fixed pension levels, the contribution would range between Rs 291 and Rs. 1,454, if the subscriber joins at the age of 40 years.