80 lakh subscribers’ base under Atal Pension Yojana

• Subscribers’ base under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has reached more than 80 Lakhs and growing at a good pace.
• At present 233 Banks and Department of Post are involved with the implementation of the scheme.
• Besides the branches of the banks and CBS enabled offices of India Post, quite a few banks are sourcing subscribers through their internet banking portals in a paperless environment.
• Now APY can also be opened through a complete digital channel through eNPS platform.
• Currently 15 Banks are offering registration services through eNPS channel including State Bank of India(SBI).
• The highest contributing State is Uttar Pradesh with 11.41 APY account followed by Bihar & Tamil Nadu.8.87 lakh & 6.60lLakh subscribers respectively.

About Atal Pension Yojana:

• Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme for unorganised sector workers such as personal maids, drivers, gardeners etc, was launched in June 2015 by the government.
• This social security scheme was introduced as a replacement to previous government's Swavalamban Yojana NPS Lite, which wasn't well accepted by people.
• APY aims to help these workers save money for their old age while they are working and guarantees returns post retirement.
• The scheme also promises a co-contribution by Central Government of 50% of the total prescribed contribution by a worker, up to Rs. 1000 per annum, but only to those who joined APY before 31.12.2015. Further, this co-contribution would be made only for 5 years, from FY 2015-16 to 2019-20 in the eligible cases subject to conditions mentioned below.
• What is the monthly contribution and mode of payment?
• APY is a periodic contribution based pension plan and promises a fixed pension of Rs 1000/ Rs 2000/ Rs 3000/ Rs 4000 or Rs 5000.

Benefits under APY

• It provides guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 to the subscribers. The scheme also allows a subscriber to decrease or increase pension amount during the course of accumulation phase, once an year.
• In case of death of subscriber, the spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled for the same amount of pension till his or her death. And after the demise of both spouse and subscriber, the nominee will be entitled to receive the pension money that the subscriber had accumulated till 60 years of age.
• However if the subscriber dies before 60 years, the spouse will have the choice to either exit the scheme and claim the accumulated amount or continue maintaining the account under the subscriber's name for the remaining vested years. The spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the same pension amount as the subscriber until death of the spouse in the latter case

By: Vishal