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You can now use your Aadhaar card as a document of identity for online enrolment to the National Pension System (NPS).
Pension regulator PFRDA has rolled out an Aadhaar-based model for online registration to NPS, enlarging the options for know-your-customer (KYC) verification.
This would mean that prospective online subscribers to NPS would not be deprived of the eNPS facility if they were to offer their Aadhaar card as a document of identity for KYC verification purposes.
Attracting subscribers “With this move, we expect larger number of people to come under the online NPS fold,” said Hemant Contractor, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) here on Wednesday.
As of February 6, India had 1.16 crore subscribers to NPS. While 7.1 million subscribers came from the private sector, the government sector accounted for 4.5 million subscribers.
Prior to the latest PFRDA move, prospective online subscribers could use only their income tax department issued Permanent Account Number (PAN) or a bank account for KYC purposes.
The eNPS (online NPS) platform using Aadhaar-based KYC verification is one of the options for any prospective subscriber to join NPS, Contractor said.
“It is optional and purely voluntary on the part of the prospective subscriber,” he said.
Alternate investment funds Meanwhile, PFRDA has allowed private sector NPS contribution to be invested in Alternate Investment Funds (category - I and Category-II funds registered with SEBI).
“We have allowed parking of up to 2 per cent of private sector NPS corpus into AIFs,” said Contractor. Providing additional avenues for investments will offer the necessary diversification, he said.
Contractor said that the Bajpai Panel report had recommended that more investment alternatives including AIFs be provided for private sector schemes. This PFRDA move came almost a fortnight after government asked PFRDA to ensure that full range of investment products including AIFs be made available for Indians saving for their retirement.
Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, had at a PFRDA event on February 4 said that global investment products should also be made available to Indian savers so that they could diversify and improve risk reward ratio on their portfolios.
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