Atal Pension Yojana currently has over 69 lacs subscribers with contribution of Rs. 2690.00 crores. Chairman, PFRDA Shri Hemant G Contractor however emphasised the need of increasing the pension coverage in India at a recently concluded conference on Atal Pension Yojana. The conference organised by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in the national capital saw participation from all major banks, representatives from NPCI, SCHIL, SIDBI, Access Assist and some major MFIs.
“A large section of the society still does not have access to pensions and this is a cause of concern for PFRDA and Government. APY has made progress in covering the intended subscribers but much remains to be done. On an average, a little less than 2% of the eligible population is covered under APY and hence a lot has to be done to provide people a regular access to old age income,” says Shri Contractor.
He also touched upon the issues of persistence in the APY accounts and asserted that the objective of the scheme is to provide pension and this will only happen if the contribution in the account has been regularly paid. He urged the APY Service Providers to educate the subscribers on the importance of the same. He also urged upon the APY Service Providers i.e Banks and Post Offices under Department of Post to achieve the targets allocated by government by putting in their best efforts.
A video message of Shri Rajiv Kumar, Secretary DFS was played during the occasion. Shri Rajiv Kumar mentioned that Atal Pension Yojana is flagship program of the Government of India under financial inclusion and financial security. The pension coverage in this country is at around 12% and banks and other stakeholder need to work towards greater coverage under the scheme. He also said that DFS is monitoring the progress under the scheme and targets allocated under the scheme to banks should be accomplished. He touched upon the subject of providing a digital platform for APY by PFRDA i.e e-APY. Secretary Shri Rajiv Kumar congratulated the banks on their performance under the campaigns and urged them to continue the work.
