The Centre and the pension regulator Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) are hopeful of bringing at least 1 crore subscribers to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) platform by end March next year.

In the last two years since launch, APY, which is an important instrument for financial inclusion, has been able to mobilise 69 lakh accounts.

Addressing a national APY conference 2017, organised by PFRDA, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, said India was a huge country and a lot had to be done on the pension front. The pension coverage in the country is still low at 10-12 percent, he added.

“We have fixed a target of 1 crore for APY to be achieved by March 2018. When we can achieve huge success in Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bhima Yojana (PMSBY) and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bhima Yojana (PMJJBY), there is no reason why we can’t achieve the target in APY”, Kumar said.

Kumar said that the Department of Financial Services has been closely monitoring the progress made on the APY enrolment.

BS Bhandari, Wholetime Member, PFRDA, later told BusinessLine that the pension regulator is hopeful of achieving the 1 crore target.

In April-September this year, a whopping 20 lakh APY accounts were opened, he noted.

This was encouraging, given that in 2015-16 (the first year), as many as 25 lakh accounts were opened, while in the following year, another 25 lakh accounts were opened. Registration for APY had started in June 2015.

“APY is picking up with more awareness. Banks are also playing an important role and offering online facility to push APY adoption”, Bhandari said.

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