New Delhi: Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA), the administrative Authority for Atal Pension Yojana (APY), has taken several steps for extension of the benefits of the Scheme to the Citizens of India. Going ahead PFRDA has offered several online features to facilitate subscribers for access of APY features without visiting the Bank/Post Branch. The number of Subscribers under APY is expected to attain 1 crore mark shortly.
Few recently introduced features for APY subscribers are as below:
· Grievance Module for APY Subscribers
· APY Upgrade View / Downgrade View
· APY/NPS lite ePRAN – SOT View for Subscribers
· Aadhaar Seeding for APY Subscribers
· APY@eNPS
· Mobile Application
To experience the features, subscriber has to visit https://npslite-nsdl.com/CRAlite/ website and can explore the features as per their requirement.
Brief on the recently introduced online features:
| Sr. No. | Feature | Brief |
| 1 | Grievance Module for APY & Swavalamban Subscribers | Facility can be used for checking the status of grievance raised by subscribers. In addition, a new grievances can also be registered ( with PRAN or without PRAN option). |
| 2 | APY Upgrade View /APY Downgrade View | APY subscriber can upgrade/downgrade a pension amount once in a year. This feature enables the user to check the differential amount to be given/ to be received as per the new pension amount chosen. |
| 3 | APY/NPS lite ePRAN | This feature will be used for downloading of transaction statement and ePRAN card. The option contains a search with PRAN and without PRAN. The subscriber can download Transaction Statement financial year wise. |
| 4 | Aadhaar Seeding for APY Subscribers | This is an OTP based feature wherein aadhaar can be seeded in APY account by inputting PRAN & aadhaar number. On successful submission, acknowledgement number will be provided as confirmation. |
| 5 | APY@eNPS | APY@eNPS offers digital APY enrolment through eNPS platform for wider reach. This user friendly platform will be expanded to make subscription under APY in a complete end to end digital environment without submission of physical form by the prospective subscribers and without visiting a bank branch. |
| 6 | Mobile Application | APY Mobile applications empowers APY subscribers to view Statement of Account and other details of their APY account. All APY customers who has smart phone can down load APY mobile applications from google store and install in their mobile phones for real time viewing of APY Accounts. |
The subscribers’ base under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has reached more than 93 Lakhs. The Scheme became operational from 1st June, 2015 dedicated to the Citizens of Country by the Primem Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and is available to all the citizens of India in the age group of 18-40 years. Under the Scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 per month, depending upon his contribution, from the age of 60 years. The same pension would be paid to the spouse of the subscriber and on the demise of both the subscriber and spouse, the accumulated pension wealth is returned to the nominee.
The APY Scheme follows the same investment pattern as applicable to the NPS contribution of the Central Govt employees. During the year 2016-17, it has generated a return of 13.91%.
