Govt may raise monthly pension limit under APY to Rs10,000

PFRDA chairman Hemant G Contractor said the proposal has been sent to the finance ministry with an aim to increase the subscriber base of APY and it is now under the ministry’s consideration.

“Currently, we have five slabs of pension from Rs1,000-5,000 per month. There have been a lot of feedback from the market asking for higher pension amounts because many people feel that Rs5,000 at the age of 60 years, 20-30 years from now, will not be sufficient.

“We have placed this proposal with the government that it should be increased to up to Rs10,000,” Contractor said.

Finance ministry officials also pointed to the need for raising monthly pension limit under the scheme to make it popular.

There is a need to increase the value of pension under APY, Madnesh Kumar Mishra, joint secretary in the Department of Financial Services (DFS) said at a conference organised by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

“We have seen the proposal (sent by PFRDA) of increasing the pension value to Rs10,000 per month and it is under our active examination,” Mishra said on the sidelines of the event.

The PFRDA has sent two more proposals to the ministry — auto enrollment for APY and raising the maximum age bar to enter the scheme to up to 50 years.

Currently, the age of entering APY is from 18-40 years but an increase in the same by another 10 years — from 18-50 years — will help in expanding the subscriber base, he added. The current subscriber base of APY is 10.2 million.

The PFRDA added about 5 million new subscribers under the scheme in 2017-18 and hopes to add another 6-7 million in the current financial year, Contractor said.