Mumbai: The assets under management (AUM) of the National Pension System (NPS) are projected to reach Rs 15 lakh crore by the end of the current fiscal year, according to Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman Deepak Mohanty.
“The total subscribers (in the pension sector) at this moment are more than 8 crore (including 6.4 crore in Atal Pension Yojana), out of which in NPS there are about 1.6 crore subscribers and the corpus what people are contributing to the pension system is almost Rs 14 lakh crore, and given that situation, our expectation is that by the end of the year, it should Rs 15 lakh crore,” Mohanty said at a press conference to announce the launch of a self-regulatory body to promote the National Pension Scheme.
Out of the 1.6 crores NPS subscribers, 62 lakh are from the private sector, while 18 lakh belong to the corporate sector.
Speaking to reporters Mohanty said, “Just like how the mutual fund industry has the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), the banking industry has the Indian Banks Association or the insurance industry has the General Insurance Council and the Life Insurance Council, we are here to launch that the Association of NPS Intermediaries (ANI).”
ANI includes pension fund managers, points of presence (both bank and non-bank), central record-keeping agencies, trustee banks, custodians, aggregators, annuity service providers, pension agents, retirement advisors, and other industry participants.
On a question on slow growth of NPS, Mohanty blamed low awareness of the scheme. He said that employee participation in the corporate
sector continues to be a challenge. "So, that is the big challenge. We have about 18,000 corporates, including big corporates, who have joined NPS, but the take-up rate by employees is less partly because there are so many things, partly because of lack of awareness that we are trying to expand," he said.
He said that expanding NPS can be achieved through various approaches, including broadening the intermediary base. He informed that PFRDA has urged sponsor banks, particularly Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), to offer NPS, as they have successfully promoted the Atal Pension Yojana in semi-urban and rural areas.
