Atal Pension Yojana commands social security space with 66% NPS subscribers

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The annual report of the National Pension Systems Trust (NPS Trust) has pegged Atal Pension Yojana as the most popular social security programme among the pension schemes. Data shared by NPS’ annual report has shown that Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has over 2.8 crore subscribers of the total 4.2 crore NPS subscribers.

In other words, over 66% of subscribers of the NPS, opted for APY at the end of the financial year 2020-21. APY was followed by the State Government Schemes which was opted by 11% of NPS subscribers. The State Autonomous Bodies (SAB) ranked third with 2% subscribers.

Popular among non-metro subscribers

The report said that APY was the most subscribed plan among the non-metro cities. This fact showed ‘the demographic pattern in the country, where more unorganized population segments reside in the non-metros, thus accessing the NPS self-initiated plan’, mentioned the report. Notably, the non-metros reported nearly 89% of the total subscribers.

The report added, “Non-metros subscribers have grown by 72.34 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 24% over one year) compared with metros subscribers which have grown by 4.87 lakh to 35.78 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 16% over one-year).”

The APY, which was launched by the Union Government in May 2015, also ranked first in terms of growth rate, gaining 33 percent year-on-year in the fiscal year ending March 2021.

Under the APY, which is open to everyone in the age group of 18-40, a subscriber would receive a guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years, depending upon their investments.

Growing female subscribers

Another interesting observation made in the report was that the female subscriber base, totaling 1.77 crore in fiscal 2021, was growing at a faster pace of 24%, than the growth rate of male subscribers, 22%, adding up to a total of 2.47 crore.

According to the NPS report, nearly 85% of the subscribers are in the age group of 18-40 years, which is a jump of 200 basis points from their share compared to the previous fiscal.