Pension subscriber base surges 22% YoY to 5.2 crore in March

The number of subscribers in the National Pension System (NPS) has risen to 5.2 crore by the end-March 2022, registering a year-on-year growth of 22.58%. The pension subscribers stood at 4.24 crore in the same month a year ago.

“The number of subscribers in various schemes under the National Pension System (NPS) rose to 520.21 lakh by end-March 2022 from 424.40 lakh in March 2021 showing a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase of 22.58%,” Ministry of Finance said in a release on Friday.

As of March 31, 2022, total pension assets under management stood at ₹7.36 lakh crore showing a Y-o-Y growth of 27.43%, the data showed.

As per the government data, the subscribers in the category of central and state government employees of the National Pension System (NPS) rose by 4.96% and 8.48%, respectively, to 22.84 lakh and 55.77 lakh.

The corporate sector saw a strong growth of 24.8% with the subscriber base jumping to 14.04 lakh from 11.25 lakh in the year-ago period.

The subscriber base under NPS Lite declined to 41.87 lakh from 43.02 lakh in the corresponding period last year. The release further stated that no fresh registration were permitted under this category with effect from April 1, 2015.

The number of subscribers under Atal Pension Yojana (APY) surged by 29.33% by the end of March 2022, to 3.62 crore, from 2.81 crore in the same period last year.

NPS and APY are two flagship schemes of the pension fund regulatory body Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The regulatory body, which comes under the jurisdiction of the finance ministry, manages the overall supervision and regulation of pensions in India.