PFRDA issues revised guidelines for National Pension System

13 Jul 2012 Evaluate

In a move to give a push to its National Pension System (NPS), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has come up with a revised guidelines for registering fund managers to manage its flagship retirement scheme. This will facilitate interested players to sell the scheme if they meet the eligibility criteria.

As per the revised guidelines by pension regulator, there is no limitation on the number of pension fund managers (PFMs) and these fund managers will be able to enroll subscribers from the non-government and private sector only. In addition, pension fund managers (PFMs) will now be allowed to prescribe their own fee charges to manage a National Pension System for the non-government and private sector, as the sector regulator has done away with the bidding process in which a uniform fee was charged for all the players.

The scheme was opened for the private sector about three years ago, but it has not made much progress since then. In an attempt to give it a push the finance ministry had even announced a 'Swawlamban' scheme wherein it would contribute 1,000 for four years to 2013-14 to the NPS account to an unorganised sector worker who brought a maximum of 12,000 of his own funds. 

The PFRDA is expecting that this would provide for an economically viable business model for the PFMs attracting a fresh set of entrants into the pension industry, which has only about 11 lakh NPS Lite subscribers in April this year. NPS Lite is a low cost version of the scheme for the weaker and economically disadvantaged subscribers. The revised structure is based on the suggestions of the Bajpai Committee set up by PFRDA.

Meanwhile, the direct or indirect foreign investment in the Pension Fund should not exceed 26 percent of the paid-up share capital or as may be laid down by the authority from time to time, the interim regulator said in the guidelines issued for registration of funds from the private sector.

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