The Finance Ministry has significantly revised the eligibility criteria for enrollment in Atal Pension Yojana (APY) and notified that Income Tax (IT) payers will not be allowed to join the scheme from October 1.
The notification will not be applicable to the customers. Those who have joined on or before 30th September, 2022. The much-hyped social security scheme was introduced by the NDA government on 1 June 2015 as a social security measure for the unorganized sector, but was kept open to all Indian citizens.
Currently, everyone in the age group of 18-40 can join APY through banks or post office branches where one has a savings bank account. The subscribers of the scheme get a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years depending on their contribution.
The new notification clarified that for IT payers joining the scheme on or after October 1, the APY account will be closed and their accumulated pension amount will be refunded to them. As per the scheme, the government paid 50 per cent of the eligible subscriber’s contribution or Rs 1,000 per annum, whichever is lower, for APY accounts opened between June 2015 and March 2016. However, this is subject to the condition that the subscriber is not a beneficiary of any other social security scheme and also not an income tax payer.
The latest data from the Ministry of Finance shows that over 99 lakh APY accounts were opened during the last financial year, taking the total subscriber base to 4.01 crore at the end of March 2022.
There are currently around 8.22 crore IT payers in India, which includes individuals and corporates. Under the IT Act, people with taxable income up to Rs 2.5 lakh are exempt from tax or are not required to pay tax on their income.
