New NPS scheme to be launched in July-Aug, says PFRDA chairman

PFRDA Chairman Deepak Mohanty

A new NPS balance lifecycle scheme will be launched in July-August that aims to balance out the risks and returns, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman Deepak Mohanty said on June 21.

“July-September new NPS balance lifecycle scheme will be launched. The new scheme will have 50 percent investment in debt and equity each. It will balance the return and risk due to age factors,” Mohanty said at a press briefing.

In the NPS balance lifecycle scheme, the debt proportion will increase after 45 years of age. Existing NPS subscribers will also be allowed to move to the new scheme, he said.

All pension funds will provide the new NPS balance lifecycle scheme.

PFRDA is aiming at 11 lakh new enrolments in the National Pension System (NPS) from the private sector in the current financial year.

Meanwhile, Moanty said a NPS scheme with assured returns has been in the works for some time now. “I cannot put a timeline to it. When we come closer to its completion, maybe then we can target a timeline.”

Combined the total corpus of NPS and APY currently stands at Rs 12.4 lakh crore, which PFRDA expects to rise to Rs 15 lakh crore in FY25. “The majority portion of these assets under management (AUM) is of NPS. APY is a very small portion at Rs 38,000 crore,” he added.

Mohanty aims to widen the NPS outreach further via regional rural banks.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

Though APY's AUM is a small portion in the combined corpus, the scheme did see record enrolments of 1.23 crore in 2023-24.

“A majority of the new enrolments last fiscal were women against previous trends. As much as 52 percent of the 1.23 crore new enrolments were women subscribers,” Mohanty said.

The total enrolments in APY stands at 6.6 crore and the PFRDA expects to add another 1.3 crore subscribers in 2024-25, the chairman added.