Fresh central government sector subscriptions beneath the National Pension System (NPS) have fallen to just 4,605 in April, possibly reflecting the damaging effect of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is substantially decrease than the month-to-month typical of 6,156 in FY21, 9,784 in FY20, 5,241 in FY19, 11,081 in FY18 and 10,923 in 2016-17. Some analysts, nevertheless, say the low addition in April could just be a short-term phenomenon and the scenario could strengthen as soon as lockdown in particular components and other Covid-connected curbs are eased.
Subscriptions from the state government sector, nevertheless, defied the trend. Almost 70,000 new subscribers joined the NPS in April. This is way above the month-to-month typical of 32,219 in FY21, showed the PFRDA information. In FY20, an typical of 36,045 fresh subscribers joined the NPS a month, down from 37,815 in FY19 and 44,585 in FY18.
The information showed that the total quantity of subscribers in different schemes beneath the NPS stood at 426.75 lakh as of April 30, recording a 23.33% rise from a year just before.
As on April 30, 2021, the asset beneath management beneath the NPS and Atal Pension Yojana has grown to Rs 5,89,854 crore from Rs 4,33,556 crore a year earlier, the PFRDA stated in a statement.
The NPS was introduced from January 1, 2004 for new entrants to central government service (except for armed forces), replacing the old pension program. It was also made applicable to new workers of all autonomous bodies of the central government from the similar date. Following the Centre, different state governments also adopted this architecture and implemented the NPS.
Late last year, in a overall performance audit report on the NPS for the year ended March 2018, the comptroller and auditor common of India (CAG) located that even immediately after 15 years of implementation, there was no assurance that all nodal offices and one hundred% eligible workers had been covered beneath the NPS. It encouraged placing in location a complete-proof program to guarantee that all nodal offices and eligible workers are registered beneath NPS.