Atal Pension Yojana upgrade account new rules explained. Reuters

Atal Pension Yojana account upgrade/downgrade option: In Financial Year 2019-20, the Central Record Keeping Agencies (CRAs) appointed by Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) developed several system-level functionalities as per the evolving need of the NPS stakeholders, the pension fund regulator said in a circular. Of these,  one of the new functionalities is on upgrading/downgrading the Atal Pension Yojana account. The scheme provides a pension option of Rs 1000, Rs 2000, Rs 3000, Rs 4000, or Rs 5000. However, the option to upgrade or downgrade is no longer available as this was extended only till May 2019, as per the PFRDA circular.

Here are the new APY functionalities:

1. Upgrade/Downgrade facility is no longer available. APY subscribers could upgrade/downgrade the opted pension amount once in a year. However, this facility was extended only till May 2010, according to PFRDA circular.

2. Printed PRAN: APY subscribers can get physical PRAN card by accessing the eNPS portal.

3. APY subscriber information and APY Forms are now available on the APY transaction website.

4. APY subscribers can download ePRAN by visiting www.npscra.nsdl.co.in under APY section. The downloaded ePRAN will have additional details like the image of the PRAN card, personal details, nomination details and APY account details.

5. Continuation of APY account by a spouse after the death of subscriber: New functionality allows the continuation of the account by a spouse after the death of the account holder. As per the PFRDA circular, spouse of the subscriber can opt to continue his/her APY account in case of death of the Subscriber. This feature has been enabled in the CRA system where a request for continuation of the account by a spouse can be processed as part of Subscriber Registration functionality by APY service Providers.

“Now, feature has been enabled in the CRA system wherein request for continuation of account by spouse can be processed as part of Subscriber Registration functionality by APY Service Providers,” PFRDA circular said.