Govt mulls raising pension limit to up to ₹10,000 a month under Atal Pension Yojana

The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority is considering increasing the pension value under the Atal Pension Yojana up to ₹10,000 a month, from the existing ₹5,000 a month.

The government is considering a proposal to raise the pension limit under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to up to ₹10,000 per month, from the existing slab of up to ₹5,000, a top official said on Tuesday.

PFRDA added about 50 lakh new subscribers under the scheme in 2017-18 and hopes to add another 60-70 lakh in the ongoing financial year. (HT Photo)

There is a need to increase the value of pension under the APY, Madnesh Kumar Mishra, joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), said at a conference organised by PFRDA.

“We have seen the proposal (sent by PFRDA) of increasing the pension value to (up to) ₹10,000 per month and it is under our active examination,” Mishra said on the sidelines of the event.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (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.

“Currently, we have five slabs of pension from ₹1,000- ₹5000 per month. There have been a lot of feedback from the market asking for higher pension amounts because many people feel that ₹5,000 at the age of 60 years, 20-30 years from now, will not be sufficient.

PFRDA has sent two more proposals to the ministry - auto enrolment 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 subscriber base of APY is 1.02 crore.

PFRDA added about 50 lakh new subscribers under the scheme in 2017-18 and hopes to add another 60-70 lakh in the ongoing financial year, Contractor said.