The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is planning to launch a guaranteed-return scheme under NPS is September this year. This was revealed by PFRDA chairman Supratim Bandopadhyay, “By September end, hopefully it will take the final shape.”
As of now, investors have a choice to choose between auto choice and active choice. In active choice, investors can choose to invest in equity up to a maximum of 75 percent, and in corporate bonds and government securities up to a maximum of 100 percent each.
The subscribers can invest in alternate assets up to a maximum of 5 percent.
Under auto choice, the subscriber can invest across three asset classes (equity, corporate bonds and government securities) in a predetermined ratio based on the subscriber's age.
Once the guaranteed return scheme is launched, subscribers will be given an option to choose the minimum assured as an option.
However, the amount of returns are yet not disclosed by the regulator.
Another big development that is set to be kicked off includes providing a variety of three different pension funds for each asset class in the non-government sector.
In other words, subscribers will be able to choose different fund managers for different asset classes: equity, corporate bonds and government securities.
As of now, a subscriber must choose a fund manager for all three asset classes.
"However, one may be strong in equity, while others in some government securities, or in corporate bond funds. So, if investors want, they can mix and match between three different pension funds," he said.
After this proposal is implemented, subscribers will have a choice to invest in three different pension funds based on their performance.
| Category | NPS subscribers (31.05.22) | As on 31.3.2022 |
| Central | 22,97,201 | 22,83,671 |
| State | 56,40,208 | 55,76,986 |
| Corporate sector | 14,68,717 | 14,04,569 |
The total number of subscribers of NPS are 1,59,52,180 and assets under management (AUM) amounting to ₹7,17,173 crore as on May 31, 2022, as per NPS Trust data.
Out of this, corporate sector employees were 14,68,717, as shown in the table below.
