Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India or PFRDA has on Wednesday sent a notification that has brought much relief to those who want to open Atal Pension Yojana.
In a circular dated October 27, 2021, the PFRDA has said that the process can be done online. It has said that in order to simplify the process to enroll to the Atal Pension Yojana, the government has added the option of Aadhar eKYC whereby citizens can subscribe to the scheme.
“As of now, the enrolment of Subscribers happens through physical, net banking or other digital modes provided by the respective APY-SPs (APY Service Providers). Now in order to further increase the outreach and simplify the process of Subscription, CRA (Central Recordkeeping agency) would be providing digital on boarding based through Aadhaar eKYC as an additional option. Aadhaar XML based on boarding has already been made available for the benefit of Subscribers. These processes are paperless,” the notification, released by the PFRDA, reads.
Here is everything you need to know about Atal Pension Yojana and how you can avail the eKYC service.
What is Atal Pension Yojana?
According to the PFRDA website, Atal Pension Yojana was launched six years ago on June 1, 2015, and is a scheme for people of unorganised sectors.
“Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme launched by Government of India is focused on the unorganized sector workers. Under the APY, minimum guaranteed pension of Rs. 1,000/- or 2,000/- or 3,000/- or 4,000 or 5,000/- per month will start after attaining the age of 60 years depending on the contributions by the subscribers for their chosen pension amount,” reads a note on the official website.
Who can subscribe to this scheme?
Any one who is a citizen of India can join the scheme, provided the age of the subscriber is between 18 to 40 years. Additionally, people can apply only if he or she has a savings bank account/ post office savings bank account. “The prospective applicants may provide mobile number to the bank during their Enrolments under APY to receive periodic updates on their APY account as well as on APY scheme. Aadhaar may also be provided at the time of enrolment as APY scheme is notified for the same,” says the PFRDA website.
Steps to open Atal Pension Yojana account using Aadhaar e-KYC on PFRDA online
Anyone who wants to open an Atal Pension Yojana account has to verify details with Aadhaar based e-KYC process online. New subscribers can be on boarded by Central Recordkeeping Agencies (CRAs) via Aadhaar eKYC. However, this remains an additional option for those who have already subscribed to the Atal Pension Yojana or APY scheme.
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India has notified that all the accounts under Atal Pension Yojana are to be seeded with Aadhar numbers of users. “All the APY accounts are to be seeded with Aadhaar number for which the CRA will be providing a functionality for facilitating the Aadhaar seeding of the existing APY subscribers through the proper consent mechanism. Additionally, APY-SPs can also collect the Aadhaar details from their associated subscribers with due consent which would then be shared with CRA for seeding,” reads the notification dated October 27.
Additionally, one can also Approach the bank branch or post office where his or her savings bank account is held or open a savings account if the subscriber doesn’t have one.
