- To encourage the workers in unorganised sector to voluntarily save for the retirement, the Government had started the Swavalamban Scheme in 2010-11. However,the coverage under the scheme is inadequate due to lack of clarity of pension benefits.
- The Finance minister has, therefore,announced a new initiative called Atal Pension Yojna (APY) in his budget speech 2015-16. The APY will be focused on all citizens in the unorganised sector who join the NPS and who are not members of any statutory social security scheme. The subscribers would receive the fixed pension of Rs.1000= or 2000=or 3000= or 4000=or 5000= per month, at the age of 60 years, depending or their contributions and age of joining APY. 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. The benefit of fixed pension would be guaranteed by the Government . The central Government would also contribute 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or Rs.1000= per annum , whichever is less , to each eligible subscriber account, for a period of 5 years, i.e.,for 2015-16 to 1019-20, who join the NPS before 31 Dec 2015 and who are not income tax payers. 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.
- Eligibility to APY–APY is open to all who are not members of any social security scheme.
- Subscriber payment–All bank account holders may join APY with auto-debit facility to accounts . This will lead to reduction in collection charges.
- Enrollment agencies–All service providers and aggregators under swavalamban scheme would enroll subscribers through architecture of NPS.
- Control–It is a Government of India scheme , which is administered by the PFRDA.
- Contribution levels and and fixed monthly pension –The table of contribution levels , fixed monthly pension to subscribers and his spouse, return of corpus to nominees of subscribers and the contribution period is given in Tables- (Tables)
| TABLE 1 – For fixed monthly pension of Rs.1000= | ||||
| Age of joining | Years of contribution | Indicative monthly contribution (in Rs.) | Monthly pension to the subscriber and his spouse(in Rs.) | Indicative Return of corpus to the nominee of the subscriber (in Rs.) |
| 18 | 42 | 42 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| 20 | 40 | 50 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| 25 | 35 | 76 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| 30 | 30 | 116 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| 35 | 25 | 181 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| 40 | 20 | 291 | 1000 | 1.7 lakh |
| TABLE 2 For fixed monthly pension of Rs.2000= | ||||
| Age of joining | Years of contribution | Indicative monthly contribution (in Rs.) | Monthly pension to the subscriber and his spouse (in Rs.) | Indicative return of corpus to the nominee of the subscriber(in Rs.) |
| 18 | 42 | 84 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| 20 | 40 | 100 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| 25 | 35 | 151 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| 30 | 30 | 231 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| 35 | 25 | 362 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| 40 | 20 | 582 | 2000 | 3.4 lakh |
| TABLE 3 – For fixed monthly pension of Rs.3000= | ||||
| Age of joining | Years of contribution | indicative monthly contribution (in Rs.) | Monthly pension to the subscriber and his spouse (in Rs.) | indicative return of corpus to the nominee of the subscriber(in Rs.) |
| 18 | 42 | 126 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| 20 | 40 | 150 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| 25 | 35 | 226 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| 30 | 30 | 347 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| 35 | 25 | 543 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| 40 | 20 | 873 | 3000 | 5.1 lakh |
| TABLE 4- For fixed monthly pension of Rs.4000= | ||||
| Age of joining | Years of contribution | indicative monthly contribution (in Rs.) | Monthly pension to the subscriber and his spouse (in Rs.) | indicative return of corpus to the nominee of the subscriber(in Rs.) |
| 18 | 42 | 168 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| 20 | 40 | 198 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| 25 | 35 | 301 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| 30 | 30 | 462 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| 35 | 25 | 722 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| 40 | 20 | 1164 | 4000 | 6.8 lakh |
| TABLE 5- For fixed monthly pension of Rs. 5000= | ||||
| Age of joining | Years of contribution | indicative monthly contribution (in Rs.) | Monthly pension to the subscriber and his spouse (in Rs.) | indicative return of corpus to the nominee of the subscriber(in Rs.) |
| 18 | 42 | 210 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
| 20 | 40 | 248 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
| 25 | 35 | 376 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
| 30 | 30 | 577 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
| 35 | 25 | 902 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
| 40 | 20 | 1454 | 5000 | 8.5 lakh |
source: PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU ,GOVT. OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF FINANCE.1 MARCH 2015
