Only once the APY account is regularised, the pension becomes guaranteed under the scheme.

If you were concerned about your APY contribution not being deducted April 2020 onwards, it is because PFRDA had stopped auto-debit facility from the savings account. Now, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is going to restart the auto-debit facility for the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) contributions from July 1, 2020.

Earlier, the PFRDA had stopped the auto-debit facility for APY subscribers till June 30, 2020. PFRDA has communicated that the Auto Debit for APY contributions shall resume from July 1, 2020.

For those APY subscribers, it will now become important to regularise their APY account now. The good news is that there won’t be any penalty. As per PFRDA, there will not be any penal interest charged provided they are regularized before September 30, 2020.

APY subscribers will have to regularize their APY accounts by depositing such non-deducted APY contributions along with regular APY contributions between 1st July 2020 and 30th September 2020.

The contributions not made in APY till June 30 will have to made between July 1 and September 30, along with the respective contributions of those months.

For a delay in making the contribution, there is a penalty towards delayed payment. For the contribution of Rs 100 or part thereof, the penalty on delayed payment is Rs. 1 per month for each delayed monthly payment in APY scheme.

By paying the overdue amount along with the penalty amount, the subscriber, in case of default in payment of contribution can regularise the APY account. Only once the APY account is regularised, the pension becomes guaranteed under the scheme.

Earlier, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, the PFRDA had stopped auto-debiting savings account of the subscribers for APY contribution till 30th June 2020. The APY contributions are being made on a monthly or quarterly basis.

APY pension scheme is available to anyone between 18 and 40 years of age but they need to have a bank account as the contribution can only be made through auto-debit from their accounts. Depending on the age and the amount of pension needed, the subscription amount varies. APY provides the benefit of a fixed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 for the lifetime to the subscriber.