APY subscribers to touch 1 crore by March 2018: Finance Ministry

NEW DELHI: The subscriber base of Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a guaranteed pension scheme for unorganised sector, is expected to increase to 1 crore by March next year, Finance Ministry said today.

"APY is not only a flagship scheme of the government, it is an important instrument for inclusion...within three years, the scheme has been able to mobilise nearly 69 lakh accounts," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said in a video message to an event organised by PFRDA here.

Given the huge population, he said, there is a long way to go as the pension coverage is very low in the country.

"When the enrolment under PMJJY (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana) and PMSBY (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) can reach to the level of 13 crore, I see no reason for APY to lag behind. We have fixed a target of 1 crore this year to be achieved by March 31," he said.

Under APY, the monthly pension would be available to the subscriber, and after him to his spouse and after their death, the pension corpus, as accumulated at the age 60 of the subscriber, would be returned to the nominee of the subscriber.

Pitching for increasing the pace of Aadhaar seeding, Kumar said, efforts have to be made to push this beyond the current level of 40 per cent.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is also offering APY by Aadhaar in a completely digital manner, he said.

Talking about digital initiative, PFRDA Chairman Hemant Contractor said the pension regulator has developed the process to offer APY enrolment through eNPS (national pension system) platform for wider reach.

The customers of the bank can visit eNPS portal and submit Aadhaar or bank name and savings bank account number to join the scheme.

Under this channel a complete end-to-end digital environment for subscription is enabled without submission of physical form at the convenience of the customer without visiting bank or post office.

Till now, APY was available for subscription through banks, business correspondents and through Internet banking.