Pension assets under management (AUM) — NPS and Atal Pension Yojana —has touched almost ₹8 lakh crore as of September 24, a 19.76 per cent growth year-on-year, latest PFRDA data showed.

At AUM of ₹ 7.99 lakh crore as of September 24, 2022, pension assets are up 8.4 per cent over ₹ 7.37 lakh crore as of end March 2022. This growth has been bolstered by a good show in value terms from corporate sector subscribers (31 per cent growth) and all citizens model (32 per cent increase), official data showed.

The number of NPS and APY subscribers touched 5.71 crore as of September 24, up 24 per cent over 4.61 crore subscribers as of September 24 last year.

Although rising interest rates and geo political concerns are weighing in on pension product demand in the country, the latest AUM is in line with the growth level anticipated by the pension regulator in the first half this fiscal, sources in PFRDA said. 

“We were anticipating it would cross ₹ 8 lakh crore in September quarter. At ₹ 7.99 lakh crore as of September 24, we are almost there and on course to achieve this milestone”, they added.

Pension Diwas

The pension regulator Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is observing Saturday (October 1) as “Pension Diwas — A Day for Pension Planning” to promote pension and retirement planning among the citizens, and enjoy financial independence post retirement. Towards this end, PFRDA has kickstarted a campaign under ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ on its social media platforms.

The pension regulator aims to encourage every citizen (working professionals and self-employed professionals) to plan towards creating a pension corpus after retirement. NPS subscribers will enjoy the benefits of tax deduction on contribution, power of compounding and reap the benefits of regular income after retirement.

“Through this campaign, we reiterate our commitment towards creating awareness about pension planning among the public. As a regulatory body, our foremost aim is to cover all eligible citizens under a pension scheme to fulfil the vision of a pensioned society for India”, PFRDA Chairperson Supratim Bandyopadhyay said.

It maybe recalled that Bandyopadhyay had in end March this year told BusinessLine that PFRDA sees pension AUM growing at robust 28-30 per cent in 2022-23 despite headwinds such as rising inflation and likely increase in interest rates in the country. 

This expected growth rate was higher than the 27.5 per cent growth recorded  in pension AUM in 2021-22 when total AUM had fallen short of the  ₹7.5-lakh crore target the regulator had set for last fiscal.

He had however then noted that rise in interest rates are a concern as 80 per cent of the pension assets are invested in the debt market.

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