Aided by strong show in the private sector, the overall National Pension System (NPS) assets grew robust 29 per cent year-on-year as of August 10 at ₹ 12.86 lakh crore, latest PFRDA data showed
The private sector assets (non-government sector) grew robust 40 per cent year-on-year basis to touch ₹2.56 lakh crore as of August 10 on the back of buoyant equity markets and growing subscriber base in the non-government sector. The number of subscribers in private sector as of August 10 stood at 58.13 lakh, up 9.48 lakh on a Y-O-Y basis.
A strong-showing from the private sector had helped NPS assets record a robust 30.5 per cent YoY growth in 2023-24 to touch ₹11.73 lakh crore as of end March 2024.
APY assets up
Meanwhile, Atal Pension Yojana (APY) assets touched ₹39,326 crore as of August 10, up 31.65 per cent year-on-year basis.
The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) had onboarded 1.2 crore APY subscribers in 2023-24. This fiscal the target is 1.3 crore. So far this fiscal, the net addition in APY subscriber base stood at about 30 lakh.
Private sector growth this fiscal has been better across all schemes including APY.
Private sector has been key reason behind NPS assets’ sharp increase in recent years.
PFRDA Chairman Deepak Mohanty had recently said that Pension regulator is targeting overall NPS Assets of ₹ 15 lakh crore by end March 2025.
The number of new NPS subscriber registrations till August 11 this fiscal stood at 3,23,858, PFRDA data showed.
PFRDA is now aiming to onboard about 11 lakh new NPS subscribers from private sector in 2024-25. In previous fiscal, as many as 9.7 lakh private sector employees enrolled for NPS.
The rapid growth of overall NPS assets is evident as the AUM was only about ₹ 1 lakh crore in 2015. NPS assets had reached the ₹10 lakh crore mark in August last year.
STRONG EQUITY RETURNS
The continued bull run in equity markets has helped pension funds record a robust average annual return of 32.58 per cent as of August 9. The returns from equity have surpassed corporate bonds by almost fourfold, and outperforming government securities and State government schemes, latest PFRDA data showed.
Over the past three years, pension funds achieved an average return of 18.16 per cent in equities, with returns since NPS inception coming in at 14.13 per cent for equity investments.
As of August 9 this year, corporate bonds recorded annual return of 8.25 per cent, while government securities saw a return of 10.18 per cent.
The annual return from Central and State government schemes stood at 12.14 percent and 12.17 percent respectively, data showed.
The total number of NPS and APY subscribers as of August 10 this year stood at 7.66 crore, up 16.25 per cent over 6.59 crore a year ago.