Atal Pension Yojana Hits The Bull’s Eye: Achieves Target For Current Fiscal

NDA government’s flagship scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has reached the significant milestone of 1.5 crore subscriber base in the current fiscal year (FY19) and aims to add another 75 lakh new subscribers in 2019-20, reports The Hindu BusinessLine (BL).

“Our aspiration is to have an APY subscriber base of at least 2.25 crore by end-March next fiscal. We have already touched 1.5 crore, a level that we had aimed for this fiscal,” said Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Member (Finance), PFRDA. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) is India’s apex pension regulator.

APY was launched in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a guaranteed pension scheme for the unorganised sector workers who constitute more than 85 per cent of India’s workforce.

Under the scheme, a fixed pension between Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 will be paid to a subscriber if he/she joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years. The contribution levels can vary and would be lower if a subscriber joins early and vice versa.

Reforms

Bandyopadhyay added that to make the scheme more attractive, PFRDA has requested the government to raise the monthly pension to Rs 10,000 from the current slab of up to Rs 5,000. A proposal to raise the maximum age bar to 50 years to enter the scheme is also being considered.

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