The government on Tuesday said the number of beneficiaries under New Pension System (NPS) stood at over 24 lakh, of which about one-third comprised the central government employees.
"The number of beneficiaries under New Pension System as on August 11, 2011, is 24,14,188," Minister of State for Finance NamoNarainMeena said in a written reply to the RajyaSabha.
He said of the total subscribers, over 7.92 lakh were central government employees, while 9,042 were from private sector companies and 45,000 from the unorganised sector.
Besides, there were 41,826 employees from Central autonomous bodies and over 7.84 lakh from state governments.
On July 1, a committee of the pension fund regulator PFRDA had suggested an overhaul of the sector by lowering fund management charges and incentivising distributors to reach out to unorganised sector.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) had set up the G N Bajpai committee in August 2010 to suggest measures to fast track and popularise retirement scheme for individuals, including those in the informal sector under NPS.
"The report recommends that PFRDA should be financially autonomous, NPS should be made a part of the national financial inclusion agenda and the government should extend the Swavalamban incentive of Rs 1,000 every year for a longer period," Meena added.
At present, seven fund houses -- LIC Pension Fund, SBI Pension Funds, UTI Retirement Solutions, IDFC Pension Fund Management Company, ICICI Prudential Pension Fund Management, Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund and Reliance Capital Pensions Fund -- manage investment corpus of investors.
As on March 31, 2011, the total assets managed by the pension fund managers amounted to Rs. 8,58crore.
