PFRDA
CALLS FOR FUND MANAGERS TO LOOK AFTER
CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES (NPS)
Pension fund regulator
PFRDA has invited bids from financial institutions to manage funds of Central
Government Employees under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for the next three years
beginning April 1, 2012.
The fund
managers will be required to manage the pension assets of Central government
employees, according to Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority
(PFRDA).
The three
pension fund managers will have to submit bids by March 15, PFRDA said. At
present, pension funds of government employees are managed by three pension fund
managers (PFMs) — LIC Pension Fund, SBI Pension Fund, and UTI Retirement
Solutions. The total corpus of the government employees as on December 2011 was
Rs 12,769 crore.
These
three fund managers are also eligible for participating in the bidding process,
the regulator said. The total average monthly subscriptions of government
employees is around Rs 500 crore.
National
Pension System (NPS) was introduced on January 1, 2004, and is mandatory for
central government employees (except armed forces personnel) appointed on or
after January 2004. The scheme was made available to all citizens on a voluntary
basis from May 1, 2009.
Even
though NPS is an immensely beneficial financial product for unorganised sector
employees, especially those who do not manage a steady source of income after
retirement, it has received lukewarm response till now.
To
popularise the scheme, PFRDA, in September 2010, introduced the Swavalamban
scheme. Under this scheme, the government contributed Rs 1,000 per year to each
NPS account opened in the year 2010-11 and for the next three years, i.E.,
2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. To be eligible, a person has to make a minimum
contribution of Rs 1,000 and maximum
contribution of Rs
12,000 per annum.
Source:
Times of India
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