Now pay less for maintaining pension account

NEW DELHI: Subscribers to New Pension System can save Rs 70 from the annual maintenance fee they pay as data keeping agency NSDL has reduced this charge to Rs 280.

National Securities Depository (NSDL), the record-keeping agency (CRA) for NPS, has reduced the annual account maintenance charge to Rs 280 from Rs 350, following subscriber base breaching the 10-lakh mark.

"The annual account maintenance fees to be charged by the central record-keeping agency has come down from the present Rs 350 to Rs 280," an official with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) told PTI.

Under the present structure, a subscriber has to pay at least Rs 470 as initial charges in the first year and Rs 350 annually to the National Securities Depository (NSDL) for the maintenance of account.

Besides, the CRA's transaction fee has come down substantially to Rs 6 per transaction from the present Rs 10, the official added.

Initially, the government had launched the New Pension System for central government employees joining service from January 1, 2004, but it was extended to all citizens from May 1, 2009.

However, pension scheme received a lukewarm response from public and only around 11,000 subscribers joined the scheme in 16 months.

Overall, there are 10.69 lakh subscribers registered under NPS till September 11 this year. This includes 6.61 lakh central government employees and 3.82 lakh state government employees.

There are six fund managers for all the citizens' scheme- IDFC Mutual Fund, Kotak Mahindra, SBI, UTI Asset Management, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Reliance MF-to manage the corpus of customers.

Besides, there are 35 PoPs of NPS, which include, postal department, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Axis Bank and Union Bank of India.
PoPs are contact and collection points for customers wanting to be part of the NPS.