Govt readies pension law revamp

NEW DELHI: The government is ready with amendments to the law to allow the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) offer more flexibility to subscribers when it comes to withdrawing funds at the time of their retirement, apart from bringing under-regulated superannuation funds within its ambit.

The bill — which was being discussed by a committee of secretaries for several months — will also delink the National Pension System Trust from the regulator, while ensuring that the FDI is aligned with the one for the insurance sector, which is currently capped at 74%, official sources told TOI.

Further, there are several smaller amendments, such as giving PFRDA powers to recover penalties.

But sources said that a key element is to allow the regulator to provide additional withdrawal options to make NPS more attractive. Currently, subscribers can withdraw 60% of the corpus at the time of retirement while using the remaining amount to purchase annuities.

Although the details are yet to be worked out, the pension regulator is looking to allow subscribers to invest in systematic withdrawal plans, which provide regular post-retirement income. The other option is to have inflation-indexed annuities, which will be benchmarked to, say, 10-year government securities. A third option is to allow subscribers to invest a part of the funds in deferred annuity so that they can earn better returns.

A key change will, however, be to regulate superannuation funds as many escape the regulator ambit. Once the law is amended, the funds have to register and PFRDA will maintain oversight. At the same time, EPFO, which also runs a pension scheme, will not be regulated by PFRDA.