The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) on Friday said NPS subscribers will now be allowed partial withdrawal for covering expenses related to treatment of COVID-19.
In a circular addressed to all stakeholders and subscribers under the National Pension System (NPS), PFRDA said, "In view of the decision of the Government of India, which has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, it has been decided to declare COVID-19 as a critical illness which is life threatening in nature."
The partial withdrawals shall be permitted to fulfil financial needs of the subscribers, if required to him/her against the request placed for partial withdrawals towards treatment of the illness of subscriber, his legally wedded spouse, children, including a legally adopted child or dependent parents, as per the regulations, PFRDA said in the circular.
PFRDA clarified that the facility of partial withdrawal will not be applicable for Atal Pension Yojana (APY) subscribers.
"We would like to clarify that presently, there is no provision for subscribers to make partial withdrawals under APY," PFRDA added.
NPS and APY are the two flagship pension scheme run by PFRDA. Whereas the NPS is for the central, state governments, autonomous bodies and corporates, APY is mainly meant to cater to the pension needs of those employed in the unorganised sector.
The majority chunk of India's workforce is employed into the unorganised sector.
As on March 31, the total number of subscribers under NPS and APY stood at 3.46 crore. Of this, the number of APY subscribers were 2.11 crore, as per data from PFRDA.
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