The pension fund body Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority recently announced that subscribers will be able to make contributions through UPI as well.
Subscribers of National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) are allowed to deposit their voluntary contributions under Direct Remit (D-Remit) into tier I or tier II through net banking account by using IMPS or NEFT or RTGS.
“Now, the contributions through UPI are enabled to further ease the process of depositing contributions. The UPI handle for the D Remit is PFRDA.15digitVirtualAccount@axisbank,” the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced.
It vital important to note that the contributions received before 9.30 am will be considered for investment the same day, while those after that will be counted for next day investment.
The central government employees (barring armed forces) who joined their service from January 1, 2004 are mandated to subscribe to NPS. Six years later, it was extended to private and unorganised sector on voluntary basis in May 2009.
D-Remit
As PFRDA has explained the UPI-handle for D-Remit is ‘PFRDA.15digitVirtualAccount@axisbank’. It is vital to note that D-Remit Account is different from the associated Permanent Account Number (PRAN) and it begins from 6001 or 6002. Also, D remit Virtual Account no is different for Tier I and tier II accounts.
Steps to send contribution via UPI
1. At the outset, you can visit the NPS Trust portal where you can click the ‘online services’ to enter ‘contribute to my PRAN’.
2. Alternatively, you can directly visit eNPS website on CRA system
Kfintech CRA: https://nps.kfintech.com/dremit/prelogindremit/
Protean CRA: https://cra-nsdl.com/CRAOnline/VirtualIdCreation.html
3. Then subscribers need to enter PRAN details and date of birth on the page as shown in the image below.
4. Following this, one needs to press continue to proceed further. Now, click on ‘Generate Virtual Account’
5. When you place a request, it will be forwarded to the trustee Bank, and an acknowledgement number will be displayed. However, make sure that a separate number is generated for each Tier type i.e., tier I and tier II.
6. When the request has been processed, subscriber can enter the OTP (one time password) that is send either on the mobile phone or email id.
7. Now, it is the time to select one of the two accounts (Tier I or II) for which virtual account is to be created.
8. While sending the money to PRAN, make sure that you enter the 15-digit virtual account number in the UPI handle. It is to be done in the following format: ‘PFRDA.15digitVirtualAccount@axisbank’.
It is worth mentioning that some recent changes were introduced by the PFRDA, enabling National Pension System (NPS) subscribers to change asset allocation four times a year.
This was meant to enable those subscribers who have chosen active asset allocation choice to tweak their portfolio and bring them in line with changing market condition and with their risk appetite.
