Pension regulator PFRDA has enabled another mode of voluntary contribution for the benefit of NPS subscribers. They can now easily contribute under D Remit through personalised Quick Response (QR) code, which would quicken transaction time like never before.

“We have enabled QR code for NPS contributions. We expect this mode to gain popularity and already some are using it”, Deepak Mohanty, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority (PFRDA) told BusinessLine recently.

Now QR Code is being created for each D Remit ID to further ease the process of contribution, sources said. The facility allows subscribers to deposit money into NPS account (Tier I and II) without going to a Points of Presence (PoP) but directly from the subscribe’s savings bank account, they added.

QR Code is a hugely popular mode of retail transactions post advent of Unified Payments System (UPI), an instant payment system developed by NPCI, in the country. 

This UPI interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer(P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used on mobile devices to instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts.

Benefits of QR Code 

QR Code has several benefits including ease and convenience; frictionless digital transactions and no need to remember D Remit ID. QR Code is available in eNPS page for D Remit users. 

This would enable subscribers to go in for one step transaction without the need for multiple login pages and passwords in merchant, PGSP and net banking site.

There will also be instant acknowledgement, which acts as proof of investment. Due to ease of contribution, the number of subscriber transactions may go up and hence the corpus too grows to build retirement wealth, sources said. 

Also, static QR Codes can be saved in phone gallery for further contribution.

FOR YOUR GOLDEN YEARS

Individuals looking for post-retirement support in their golden years are voluntarily opting for NPS in a big way. Last fiscal, over a million new subscribers joined NPS under these categories. PFRDA is confident of onboarding at least 13 lakh new subscribers this fiscal in these two categories.

National Pension System (NPS) was introduced as a defined contribution pension plan with co-contribution by the government and the employees who joined Central government (except for armed forces) with effect from January 1, 2004. Subsequently, a number of State governments adopted NPS. It was extended to all citizens in May 2009 and to corporates in 2010. 

Since then, NPS has made significant progress. Between March 2019 and August 2023, the number of subscribers have increased from 80 lakh to 136 lakh, and assets under management increased over threefold from ₹3.1 lakh crore to ₹10 lakh crore now. 

The NPS corpus is invested in equity and debt. It has generated competitive returns. For example, since inception, the equity scheme has given an annual average return of about 12.5 per cent and the government debt scheme has given a return of over 8.6 per cent.

NPS is a flexible scheme giving the investor the choice of fund managers and asset allocation. Currently, there are ten pension fund managers.

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