Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana gets over 42,600 subscribers

NEW DELHI: The special pension scheme for senior citizens seems gaining momentum with 42,607 people buying the policy in about three months since its launch.

Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, launched by LIC for citizens of 60 years and above, offers pension that is equivalent to guaranteed return of 9 per cent on the sum contributed by the subscriber.

"42,607 persons have subscribed as on November 24, 2014," Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has informed the Finance Ministry.

The limited period scheme was launched on August 15 this year and would remain open till August 14, 2015.

The monthly pension under the scheme ranges from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 a month.

Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana, introduced first in 2003-04 by then NDA Government, had covered 3.83 lakh senior citizens then. LIC had collected Rs 7,100 crore under the scheme. The subscription to the scheme is likely to create a corpus of more than Rs 10,000 crore.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in his budget speech earlier this year had announced a proposal to revive the scheme.