The central government is considering hiking the monthly pension limit under Atal Pension Yojna to Rs 10,000 per month. According to reports, Madnesh Kumar Mishra, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services has stated that it is necessary to raise the value of the pension for the beneficiaries.
According to reports, Pension Funds Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chairman Hemant G Contractor has stated that the proposal for increasing the limit has been sent to the finance ministry. Contractor reportedly added that currently there are five slabs of pension from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 and they have received a lot of feedbacks saying that an amount of 5000 may not be sustainable after 20-30 years. The PFRDA believes that a higher limit will also motivate more people to subscribe to this scheme.
The PFRDA has reportedly sent another two proposals to the finance ministry. They are reportedly ensuring auto-enrollment for APY and raising the maximum age limit for subscribing to APY to 50 years. Currently, the maximum age limit is 40 years and the scheme needs a minimum of 20 years premium payment for a beneficiary to receive pension fro 60 years of age.
The total number of people enrolled under APY so far is reportedly 1.02 crores. PFRDA stated that they hope to enrol at least 60 to 70 lakh new subscribers by the end of the current fiscal year.
Atal Pension Yojna was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015 budget speech and was started by PM Modi on May that year in Kolkata. It assures a monthly pension of Rs 5000 for as little as Rs 210 paid as monthly premium.
