Government looks into proposal to double pension limit under Atal Pension Yojana

The government is considering a proposal by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to increase the pension limit under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to up to Rs 10,000 per month from the existing ceiling of Rs 5,000.

“We have seen the proposal and it is under our active examination,” said Madnesh Kumar Mishra, joint secretary at department of financial services DFS), adding that there is a need to increase the value of pension under APY.

PFRDA chairman Hemant G Contractor said the proposal has been sent to the finance ministry with an aim to increase the subscriber base of APY, which stands at 10.2 million.


“Currently, we have five slabs of pension from Rs 1,000-5000 per month,” he said. “There has been a lot of feedback from the market asking for higher pension amounts because many people feel that Rs 5,000 at the age of 60 years, 20-30 years from now, will not be sufficient,” Contractor said.

PFRDA has sent two more proposals to the ministry — auto enrolment for APY and increasing the maximum age bar to enter the scheme to 50 years.

At present, the age limit for enrolling for APY is 18-40 years. Increasing it to 18-50 years will help in expanding the subscriber base, Contractor said.

PFRDA added about 5 million new subscribers under the scheme in 2017-18 and hopes to add another 6-7 million in the ongoing financial year, he said.