A Pension provides a monthly income to the people during their unproductive years. Need for Pension:
Any Citizen of India can join APY scheme. The following are the eligibility criteria: -
Yes, any Indian citizen within the age group of 18 - 40 years, can join APY Scheme irrespective of his/her employment status with Govt./Public Sector, for availing benefits guaranteed by Government of India under the scheme. Further, an existing NPS subscriber can also subscribe to APY, if he/she meetsthe basic eligibility criteria, for availing benefits guaranteed by Government of India; under the scheme.
The benefit of minimum pension under Atal Pension Yojana would be guaranteed by the Government in the sense that if the actual realized returns on the pension contributions are less than the assumed returns for minimum guaranteed pension, over the period of contribution, such shortfall shall be funded by the Government. On the other hand, if the actual returns on the pension contributions are higher than the assumed returns for minimum
guaranteed pension, over the period of contribution, such enhanced scheme benefits shall be passed on to the subscribers.
The Government of India had co-contributed 50% of the total contribution or Rs. 1000 per annum, whichever is lower, to each eligible subscriber, who joined the scheme during the period 1 st June, 2015 to 31st March, 2016 and who is not a beneficiary of any social security scheme and is not an income tax payer. The Government co-contribution will be given for 5 years from the Financial Year 2015-16 to the Financial Year 2019-20.
Approach the bank branch/ post office where individual’s savings bank account is held or open a savings account if the subscriber doesn’t have one.
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has now been included under the Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. As per the provisions of the Act, any individual who is eligible to receive such benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrolment under Aadhaar authentication. Hence, it is desirable to provide Aadhaar Number for proper identification of the subscriber.
No, the savings bank account/ post office savings bank account is mandatory for joining APY.
Yes. It is mandatory to provide nominee details in APY account.
If the subscriber is Unmarried they can nominate any other person as nominee and they have to provide spouse details after marriage. If married, the spouse will be the default nominee. The Aadhaar details of spouse and nominees may be provided.
A subscriber can open only one APY account. Multiple APY accounts are not permitted.
No. A minor cannot open an APY account.
No, currently a person who is in age group of 18 years to 39 years 364 days can join Atal Pension Yojana.
Yes, NRI in the age group 18-40 years of age having a bank account with APY POP is eligible to open APY account.
The scheme is open to the Indian citizens only. Hence, in that event the APY account will be closed and the net actual interest earned on his contributions (after deducting the account maintenance charges) will be refunded, whereas, the Government co-contribution, and the interest earned on the Government co-contribution, shall not be returned to such subscribers.
The contribution amount shall depend on the age of the subscriber at the time of opening of APY account, frequency of contribution and the pension slab chosen. The age wise, frequency wise and pension slab wise contribution table is provided as Annexure for reference.
The contributions can be made at monthly / quarterly / half yearly intervals through auto debit facility from savings bank account/ post office savings bank account of the subscriber.
APY contributions will be collected through auto-debit of their savings bank account/ post office savings bank account on any date of the particular month, in case of monthly contributions or any day of the first month of the quarter, in case of quarterly contributions or any day of the first month of the half year, in case of half-yearly contributions.
Subscriber will be charged overdue interest for the delayed period in case the APY contribution gets delayed beyond the due date.
Banks are required to collect Rs. 1 per month for contribution of every Rs. 100, or part thereof, for each delayed monthly contributions. The overdue interest amount collected will remain as part of the pension corpus of the subscriber. More than one monthly / quarterly / half yearly contribution can be recovered subject to availability of the funds.
In case of inadequate balance in the saving account of the subscriber till the last date of the month / last date of the first month in a quarter / last day of the first month in a half year, as the case may be, it will be treated as a default and contribution will have to be paid in the subsequent month along with overdue interest for delayed contributions. More than one monthly / quarterly / half yearly contribution can be recovered subject to availability of the funds.
Deduction would continue to be made in the subscriber’s APY account for account maintenance charges and other related charges on a periodic basis till it becomes zero.
The contributions under APY are invested as per the investment guidelines prescribed by PFRDA for Central Government / State Government / NPS-Lite / Swavalamban Scheme / APY. The contributions thus collected are invested and the funds are managed by namely SBI Pension Fund Pvt. Ltd, LIC Pension Fund Ltd, UTI Retirement Solution Ltd.
As per the evolving needs, Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) appointed by PFRDA has developed and made available the new functionalities categorized in the table below. PFRDA has also enabled digital utilities for these functionalities available online to facilitate subscribers to access their Account without visiting the bank/post branch. These features are expected to benefit APY Subscribers and empower them to carry out Account related activities as described below.
| Sr. No. | Module | Usage of Functionality | Digital Utility Available Online |
| 1 | Upgrade/ Downgrade | Under APY, the Subscriber is required to select the minimum pension of Rs. 1,000/-, 2,000/-, 3,000/-, 4,000 and 5,000/- per month that will be given at the age of 60 years depending on the contributions by the Subscribers. Accordingly, the contribution is deducted from Subscriber’s Bank Account as per the frequency opted i.e. monthly/quarterly/half yearly. As per PFRDA guidelines, APY Subscribers have an option to upgrade/downgrade the opted pension amount. The window period to change the pension amount is available to Subscriber only once throughout the year from 1st July, 2020. | APY Upgrade /APY Downgrade View |
| 2 | PRAN Card Printing | Atal Pension Yojana (APY) Subscribers have an option to opt for physical PRAN Card by accessing eNPS portal. Now, an instruction Link has been provided to Subscribers to know how to Print APY PRAN Card. This link is available once Subscriber clicks on Atal Pension Yojana menu available on eNPS portal. | ePRAN card/e SoT facility: Useful for downloading of transaction statement and ePRAN card. The option contains a search with PRAN and without PRAN. The subscriber can download Transaction Statement financial year wise. |
| 3 | Continuation of APY Account | As per Notification F. No. 16/1/2015-PR dated 22nd March, 2016 issued by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance and PFRDA exit guidelines under APY, a spouse of the Subscriber has an option to continue his/her APY account in case of death of the Subscriber. Now, feature has been enabled in the CRA system wherein request for continuation of account by spouse can be processed as part of Subscriber Registration functionality by APY Service Providers. The continuation of APY account by spouse will be with below options : 1. In case of death of Subscriber before 60 years, new PRAN will be generated in the name of Spouse and spouse will be allowed to contribute for the remaining period i.e. till the date on which original/deceased subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years . 2. Spouse will be allowed to contribute same amount as earlier opted by the original/deceased subscriber. 3. The balance units available in subscriber’s APY account will be transferred to the APY account of spouse. | NA |
| 4 | Subscriber Registration | Spouse will be allowed to contribute from his/her own Savings Bank account. 4 Subscriber Registration As per PFRDA guidelines, FATCA compliance is mandatory for all new subscriber’s enrolment under APY. To adhere to FATCA compliance, related FATCA field(s) has been incorporated in Subscriber Registration file format. This is applicable for all the types of subscriber’s enrolments under APY,as per below mentioned criteria: 1. New Subscriber Registration 2. Subscriber migrating from NPS Lite-Swavalamban to APY 3. Spouse who continue APY account on death of Subscriber | APY@eNPS (Digital On boarding facility into APY): Digital APY enrolment through eNPS ensures wider reach. It is a user friendly platform and makes enrolment under APY in a complete end to end digital interface without submission of physical form by the prospective subscribers and without visiting a bank branch. |
| 5 | CGMS | TheAPY-SPs have facility to raise queries/grievances on behalf of associated Subscribers in the CRA login. As part of functionality, APYSPs will have below options: 1. Log Grievance request 2. Grievance resolution 3. Grievance status view 4. View and Assign grievance 5. Grievance Master status view | APY Grievance Module |
| 6 | Mobile Application | APY Mobile applications empower the subscribers to view Statement of Account and other details of their APY account. | APY subscribers with smart phones can down load APY mobile applications from Google Play store by typing ‘APY and NPS Lite’ in search option and installing in their mobile phones for real time viewing of APY Accounts. The APY mobile application is available for APY users free of cost, where, recent 5 contributions can be checked and transaction statement and ePRAN can also be downloaded anytime without paying any charge. |
The subscribers may visit the following link for accessing the above features https://www.npscra.nsdl.co.in/scheme-details.php
Yes, various Forms under APY can be accessed online at https://www.npscra.nsdl.co.in/nsdlforms.php
The periodical information to the subscribers regarding activation of PRAN, balance in the account, contribution credits etc. will be intimated to APY subscribers by way of SMS alerts on the registered mobile number or can be accessed through mobile/APY app launched by NSDL. The subscriber will also be receiving physical Statement of Account once a financial year at their registered address
Yes. The physical statement of APY account will be provided to the subscribers annually at the registered address.
The APY contributions will continue to collected through auto debit of the same Savings Account uninterruptedly even in case of change of residence / location. As contribution collection is done through bank account which is CBS enabled, subscriber can continue contributing through same savings bank account, even if the residence is changed.
Yes, the subscriber can change the mode (monthly/ quarterly/half yearly) of auto debit Facility once in a year..
Yes, the Toll Free Helpline number for APY Scheme is 1800-110-069
Tax benefits available under NPS scheme are same under APY Scheme as per Notification No. 7 /2016, F.No.173/394/2015-ITA-I dated 19th Feb, 2016
Table of all charges and fees of APY
Applicable fees and charges levied on APY subscribers
PRA Opening charges
Annual PRA Maintenance cost per account
Charge per transaction
NSDL Rs.25 or Karvy Rs. 14.40
Initial subscriber registration and contribution upload
Any subsequent transactions
Persistency > 6 months & Rs.1000 contribution
Contribution through eNPS
The subscribers will submit the request to the associated bank/Post office for drawing the guaranteed minimum monthly pension or higher monthly pension, if investment returns are higher than the guaranteed returns embedded in APY. Upon successful submission of the request, the subscriber receives monthly pension depending on the contributions by the subscriber. The same amount of monthly pension is payable to spouse (default nominee) upon death of subscriber. Nominee will be eligible for return of pension wealth accumulated till age 60 years of the subscriber, upon death of both the subscriber andspouse.
Yes, Voluntary exit under APY before 60 years of age is permitted. The subscriber shall only be refunded the contributions made by him to APY along with the net actual accrued income earned on his contributions (after deducting the account maintenance charges).
However, in case of subscribers who joined the scheme before 31st March 2016 and received Government Co-Contribution shall not receive the Government co-contribution and the accrued income earned on the same, if opted for Voluntary exit before 60 years.
Option 1: In case of death of the subscriber before 60 years, option will be available to the spouse of the subscriber to continue contribution in the APY account of the subscriber, which can be maintained in the spouse’s name, for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber would have attained the age of 60 years. The spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the same pension amount as the subscriber until death of the spouse. Such APY account and pension amount would be in addition to even if the spouse has his/her APY account and pension amount in own name.
Option 2: The entire accumulated corpus till date under APY will be returned to the spouse / nominee.
The subscriber shall receive the following three benefits on attaining the age of 60:
The Swavalamban Subscribers between 18 to 40 years of age are eligible to migrate to APY.
The eligible swavalamban subscribers who wish to migrate to APY shall fill up the enrollment form for migration to APY and submit the same along with the copy of PRAN card to the nearest APY Service Provider for registration. Subsequent to the registration, the subscriber will be mapped to the bank branch. The PRAN amount balance under Swavalamban Scheme will be shifted to APY Scheme on T+1 basis.
The accumulated corpus of existing NPS Lite/Swavalamban subscriber between the age group of 18 and 40 years, who get migrated to APY will be kept under the same PRAN and remain as an additional wealth of the subscriber till the time of exit. This additional amount may be given to the subscriber as enhanced pension benefit or as lump-sum withdrawal, as the case may be. The contribution of such subscribers under APY, after migration from the NPS Lite/Swavalamban Scheme to APY, would be as per the amount mentioned in the Annex –I, depending on the pension amount selected and the age of the subscriber.
Yes, the subscribers under the NPS Lite/Swavalamban Scheme who do not wish to continue under the Scheme may exit from the scheme as per the guidelines applicable and withdraw the entire amount in lump sum or may prefer to continue till the age of 60 years to be eligible for benefits as per the scheme.
Yes, APY pages are available on social media on the following links:
PFRDA page available at: