NPS was introduced by the Central Government to help the individuals have income in the form of pension to take care of their retirement needs.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) regulates and administers NPS under the PFRDA Act, 2013.
NPS is a market-linked defined contribution scheme that helps you save for your retirement. The scheme is simple, voluntary, portable and flexible. It is one of the most efficient ways of boosting your retirement income and saving tax. It allows you to plan for a financially secure retirement with systematic savings in a planned way.
NPS is available to all the citizens of India and offers different models depending on the following user segments:
- As per the notification of the Ministry of Finance dated 5/7/2003-ECB-PR dated 22nd December 2003, NPS is mandatory for Central Government employees, who joined service on or after January 1, 2004, except for those in the armed forces and is also extended to the employees of Central Autonomous Bodies from the said date. It is also available to all State Government employees/employees of State Autonomous Bodies, if the respective State/UT opted for it.
- NPS can be voluntarily adopted by the corporates for their employees and contributions are made to the NPS account as per the terms of employment.
- NPS voluntary model is available to all the citizens of India including those residing abroad, between the age of 18 and 70 years.
Open NPS Account
View my NPS Holding
Contribute to PRAN
Activate Tier-II
Activate Direct Remit
NPS SIP
Online Services
Benefits of NPS
You get the freedom to decide your investment allocation among the four asset classes available, depending on your risk appetite and the return expectations. You also get the flexibility to shift your pension fund manager and scheme preference.
Opening an NPS account provides you with a "Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN)", which is a unique 12 digit number that remains with you throughout your lifetime. NPS also offers Tax benefits under the Income Tax Act 1961.
You get seamless portability across jobs, sectors and locations with NPS. It is a hassle-free process while shifting to the new job/location, without leaving behind the built corpus. After exercising the portability option, you can continue with the same scheme and fund manager or can also change as per your choice.
NPS is regulated by PFRDA with transparent investment norms, regular monitoring and performance review of pension fund managers by NPS Trust.
You get the benefit of lowest account maintenance costs with NPS as compared to similar pension products across the globe. While saving for a long-term goal such as retirement, the cost matters a lot as the charges can trim off a significant amount from the corpus over 35-40 years of investment period.
Till the time you stay invested, the accumulated corpus grows over a period of time at a compounding rate and offers optimum market linked returns based on your investment choice. With this dual benefit of low cost and compounding, you get the benefit of larger corpus.
You can open your NPS account online either through the eNPS portal. The facility of online contributions, activating Tier-II, D-Remit is also available online. You can manage/ access your NPS account online through the portals offered by the respective CRA.