Atal pension plan: Over 65 lakh subscribers added this fiscal

New Delhi: Over 65 lakh subscribers have enrolled in the Atal Pension Yojana so far this fiscal, taking the total enrolment under the scheme to 3.68 crore in the past sixand- a-half years, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

APY, the flagship social security scheme of the Government of India, was launched on May 9, 2015, to provide old-age income security particularly to the citizen in the unorganised sectors.

“The journey of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) over six-and-a-half years since its inception has been substantive with 3.68 crore enrolments. The performance in this financial year has been good as more than 65 lakh subscribers enrolled which is the highest ever enrolment during the same period since the launch of the scheme,” the ministry said in a statement. Apart from enrolments, the male-to-female subscription ratio of 56:44 is improving, and assets under management stand at Rs 20,000 crore.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said, “In addition to achieving one crore enrolment during this current year, we have the task of achieving pension saturation in the country and we shall continuously undertake proactive initiatives for achieving it.”APY, which is administered by PFRDA, can be subscribed by any Indian en in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account. It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 on attaining 60 years. Secondly, the pension is guaranteed for a lifetime to the spouse on death of the subscriber and lastly, in the event of death of both subscriber and the spouse, the pension corpus is paid to the nominee. -(PTI)