NPS expected to grow at 35-40% in FY17, says PF regulator

Pension fund regulator PFRDA is expecting National Pension System (NPS) to grow at a rate of 35-40 percent in the current fiscal, a top official said today.

"NPS has been growing at around 35 percent per annum in terms of both AUM and subscriber base for the past three years. We hope to see it to grow at a rate of 35-40 per cent during the current fiscal too," PFRDA Chairman Hemant Contractor told PTI on the sidelines of an event here.

The AUM of NPS crossed Rs 1.61 trillion-mark with a subscriber base of 1.41 crore as on December 31, he said.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY), launched by the Government as one of the variants of Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana, has crossed the 41 lakh subscriber mark in the past 15 months.

"We are targeting the APY subscriber base to cross the 50 lakh mark by the fiscal-end," he said.

Contractor said the watchdog has put forward proposals to the Government for modification in APY.

First, the PFRDA has suggested the Government to raise the age-limit for subscribers of APY to 50 years from the current 40.

"Moreover, we want to increase the pension slab from the existing limit of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 a month," he said.

The regulator has introduced e-Sign facility for subscribers to join NPS online.

As per the existing norms, one needn't produce all copies of original documents while filling up the form online.

Still, he is supposed to produce the copies of original documents within six months' time.

"However, we have now done away with the rider of producing copies of original papers within six months' time," he said, adding "within 20 days of its introduction, around 6,000 people have joined NPS through e-Sign initiative." On joining of new pension fund managers, he said nine PFMs, which include seven existing ones, have already been given a go-ahead by the regulator. PTI KD RSY .