Govt releases Rs 100 cr towards co-contribution in APY

Government has released Rs 100 crore towards its co-contribution for Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for 2015-16.

Under the scheme, individuals who have registered before March 31, 2016, will get a co-contribution from the government, which will be 50 per cent of the subscriber contribution up to a maximum of Rs 1,000. The co-contribution will be for 5 years from 2015-16 to 2019-20.

"Government of India through PFRDA has released co-contribution for 2015-16 for 16.96 lakh eligible APY subscribers amounting to Rs 99.57 crore," a finance ministry statement said.

It said subscribers who have any pending contributions in their APY accounts till March 2016 won't be paid with co-contribution.

"They have been advised by PFRDA to regularise their APY accounts so as to get the Government of India co-contribution in September," it added. PFRDA is the pension fund regulator.

Government's co-contribution is payable only when accounts are regular and the admissible co-contribution is paid into the savings bank account of the subscribers.

The government is implementing Atal Pension Yojana (APY) through banks and the Department of Post.

The total number of subscribers registered under APY as on June 30, 2016, has crossed 30 lakh and every day, nearly 5,000 new subscribers are added, the statement said.

Only those users who are not income tax payers and not part of any other social security schemes are eligible for the central government co-contribution.

APY provides minimum guaranteed pension ranging between Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month for the subscriber from the age of 60 years. The same amount of pension is paid to the spouse in the case of the subscriber's demise.

After the demise of both -- the subscriber and the spouse -- the nominee would be paid the pension corpus. It also provides an option to the spouse to continue contribution in the APY account of the subscriber for the remaining period, on premature death of the customer before 60 years so that pension can be availed by the spouse.