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Both the salaried class and the informal sector gravitated towards safe funds during the pandemic to meet their needs during the golden years. Latest data released by pension regulator PFRDA with regard to the National Pension System (NPS) showed a sharp increase in the number of new subscribers as well as the value of assets under management (AUM) for these categories as of end November on a year-on-year basis.
The informal sector, too, gave a thumbs up to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which saw a 30.16 per cent increase in the number of subscribers y-o-y as of November to 3.25 crore from 2.49 crore as of November 2020. The latest numbers are even better than the y-o-y growth as of November 2020.
While the corporate sector saw a 23.73 per cent y-o-y increase as of November 2021 in the number of subscribers at 13.19 lakh, the retail segment recorded an increase of 33.81 per cent to 18.88 lakh subscribers, official data showed. The number of subscribers as of November 2020 stood at 10.66 lakh against the 9-lakh level seen in November 2020.
Surge in AUM
On the AUM front, the corporate sector segment (salaried employees subscribing to NPS through their employers) saw a whopping y-o-y growth to ₹79,866 crore as of November 2021 against ₹55,462 crore as of November 2020. The retail segment AUM as of November 2021 stood at ₹27,688 crore, up 55 per cent over ₹17,854 crore as of November 2020.
Pension industry experts believe the strong growth in value and number of subscribers is a clear pointer to people taking note of the investment opportunity that NPS offers; the scheme not only allows them to build a corpus but also gives them decent returns during the accumulation phase, apart from financial freedom, post retirement.
The trend included the informal sector under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which saw a 30.16 per cent increase in the number of subscribers on a y-o-y basis as of November 2021 to 3.25 crore (2.49 crore). The AUM under APY grew 36.08 per cent y-o-y as of November 2021 to ₹19,352 crore (₹14,221 crore).
Sridhar Srinath, Corporate Advisor and Independent Markets commentator, said: “The growth is visible across the white-collar and informal sector constituents. If this trend keeps increasing, it would be a positive one which would make NPS an acceptable social-security measure.”
Pension assets grow
On an overall basis, India’s pension assets continued to show a robust growth with the AUM touching ₹6.87-lakh crore as of November 2021, up 29.13 per cent over ₹5.32-lakh crore as of November 2020. The AUM of the Central and State government subscribers — who form the bulk of the AUM — recorded a y-o-y growth of 22.04 per cent and 28.81 per cent, respectively.
Pension regulator PFRDA is targeting an AUM of ₹7.5-lakh crore by end March this fiscal and ₹30-lakh crore by 2030.
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