Atal Pension Yojana UPSC

Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

What are the Objectives of Atal Pension Yojana ?

• To provide old age income security particularly to the workers in the unorganised sector.

• Addressing the challenges of rapidly increasing aging population of India.

Features of Atal Pension Yojana

Eligibility for APY: 

APY can be subscribed by any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account.

- Minimum period of contribution by the subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more

Guaranteed pension: 

It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.

- Amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to spouse on death of the subscriber. 

- In the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.

Government contribution:

Central Government co-contributed 50% of the subscriber’s contribution or Rs 1000 per annum (whichever is lower) to each eligible subscriber account, for a period of 5 years, i.e., from 2015-16 to 2019-20, who join the NPS before 31st December, 2015.

- Beneficiary should not be member of any statutory social security scheme nor income tax payers

Administered by: 

PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory Authority) through National Pension System architecture.

Tax Benefits: 

APY subscribers would enjoy tax benefits on their own contributions as well as their employer’s contribution.

Note:-

Recently, Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has completed 5 years of successful implementation (2015-16 to 2019-20)