How to read your NPS statement

The National Pension System (NPS) – a retirement planning scheme rolled by the Government of India offers market-linked returns. Every month you get a transaction statement by email, just like the consolidated monthly statements for your investments in shares and mutual funds. The statement tells you how your NPS investments fared.

Many investors opt for online transactions while investing in NPS and the monthly statement sent to you can be used for record keeping.

But how do you make sense of your NPS statement? Here is how you must read your NPS statement and understand what’s happened with your investments.

Your monthly account statement captures all the vital details. Make sure you go through it carefully. Check yourdetails – permanent retirement account number (PRAN), name, address, contact details, details of nomination and status of account(active or inactive). Make sure the details are correct.

These include the investment summary which captures your total contribution, market value of your investments and the notional gain as of the end of the month. Value of your holding will keep changing every month, depending on the changing net asset values of the underlying investments and your contributions. If you have a retirement plan, then you will have a specific goal in terms of how much corpus you aim to accumulate over time. Keep a track of the value of your investments and how far you still have to go to reach that goal.

The investment summary is followed by your current asset allocation – captured under the current scheme preference. It lists the number of schemes you have chosen and the allocation to each one of them.

And then come the investment details. The first table is labelled as investment details and gives more important details such as return earned and intermediary charges, along with total contribution, value of your investment holdings that are also given earlier. While this table captures the details of the entire account, a similar table gives scheme-wise split of your funds in NPS. Charges depend on the nature, amount and mode of transaction.

If you changed your asset allocation or made any other modifications to your PRAN such as a change in nomination, then the same gets captured under the head ‘Changes made during the period.’ Contribution/redemption details capture the date of transaction and the amount involved. The transaction details table gives out allocation across the schemes you choose and the charges involved. At the end of the each quarter, there will be a disclosure of charges (mentioned in rupees) in the form of deduction of units from each scheme in the account. For example, your July month statement will show charges for the April to June quarter.

If the contents of this statement are not correct, you have to write to NPS on the official website or call them on their designated helpline number. You can use the statement capturing your contribution details as a proof for claiming tax deduction under the Income Tax Act.