Combined assets under management (AUM) of National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana surged 32.67% year-on-year to touch ₹6.17 trillion as of 30 June 2021. On the same day in 2020, the combined AUM of both the schemes stood at ₹4.64 trillion.
Total subscriber base as of the end of June was at 4.35 crore from 3.50 crore in June 2020, up 24.04%.
Number of subscribers in various schemes under NPS and APY
Besides, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) press release issued on 16 July said, "As on 30th June 2021, total pension assets under management stood at Rs. 6,16,517 crore showing a Y-o-Y growth of 32.67%."
Total Assets under Management under NPS and APY
NPS was initially notified for central government employees as of 1 January 2004 and subsequently adopted by almost all state governments for its employees. NPS was later extended to all citizens of India (resident/non-resident/overseas) voluntarily and to corporates for its employees. NPS is compulsory for government employees who joined service after 2004 and it was opened to the private sector in 2009.
To increase NPS penetration, especially in tier-1 and tier-2 cities and to reach out to all segments of individuals, PFRDA has allowed individual or even NPS subscribers to become a distributor of the pension products. Earlier, the regulator had allowed only banks and Point of Presence-Service Providers to work as distributors.
NPS is one of the low-cost investment avenues. It allows exposure to equity for up to 75% of the corpus and is reasonably tax efficient.
On the other hand, the Atal Pension Yojana is a periodic contribution-based pension plan and provides a guaranteed pension of ₹1,000-5,000 to subscribers.
