Atal Pension Yojna emerges as leading social security scheme

New Delhi: Atal Pension Yojana has emerged as the most popular social security scheme under the National Pension System (NPS) with over 2.8 crore subscribers, mainly from the non-metro centres.

Out of 4.2 crore National Pension System (NPS) subscribers, over 66 per cent or 2.8 crore opted for the APY at the end of 2020-21, says the annual report of the National Pension Systems Trust (NPS Trust). The State Government Scheme ranks second with 11 per cent share, while the central autonomous bodies (CAB) continued to account for the least number of subscribers of NPS with a share of one per cent, followed by state autonomous bodies (SAB) with a share of two per cent.

"APY is the most subscribed plan among non-metro subscribers. This also reflects the demographic pattern in the country, where more unorganized population segments reside in the non-metros, thus accessing the NPS self-initiated plan," the report said.

Total assets under management (AUM) for the National Pension System schemes saw a year-on-year growth of over 38 per cent, and stood at Rs 5.78 lakh crore at the end of the year, the report said, adding as of fiscal 2021, NPS had 4.2 crore registered users or popularly known as subscribers. The National Pension System is a defined contribution retirement savings scheme administered and regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). APY also dominated in terms of growth rate of the subscriber base, with a gain of 33 per cent on-year in fiscal year ending March 2021, followed by the all-citizen model (32 per cent).

The Atal Pension Yojana was launched by the Government of India in May 2015. This scheme is open to all citizens who are in the age group of 18-40 years. Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years, depending upon his contributions. After the death of the subscribers, same pension amount would be paid to his or her spouse. On the demise of both subscriber and spouse, the accumulated pension wealth of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee. Non-metros had 3.77 crore subscribers or about 89 per cent of the total 4.24 crore NPS subscribers. "Non-metros subscribers have grown by 72.34 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 24 per cent over one-year) compared with metros subscribers which have grown by 4.87 lakh to 35.78 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 16 per cent over one-year)," it said.