Taxpayers Barred from Joining Atal Pension Yojana from 1st October: Govt

Moneylife Digital Team 11 August 2022

Personal Finance

Any citizen who is liable to pay income-tax (I-T) will not be allowed to join the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) scheme from 1 October 2022, the Union government says. The subscriber base of the APY scheme had grown to 37.4mn (million) as of 4 June 2022.

A Gazette notification issued by the Union ministry of finance (MoF) says, "Provided that from 1 October 2022, any citizen who is or has been an income-tax payer, shall not be eligible to join APY. Explanation: For the purpose of this clause, the expression 'income-tax payer' shall mean a person who is liable to pay income tax in accordance with the I-T Act as amended from time to time."

According to the notification, "in case a subscriber, who joined on or after 1 October 2022, is subsequently found to have been an income-tax payer on or before the date of application, the APY account shall be closed and the accumulated pension wealth till date would be given to the subscriber."

As of 4 June 2022, total number of subscribers for the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) stood at 53.3mn, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chairperson Supratim Bandyopadhyay says.

As of 4 June 2022, the asset under management (AUM) under NPS and APY was at Rs7,39,393 crore.

Atal Pension Yojana

Atal Pension Yojana is the guaranteed pension scheme of the government of India administered by PFRDA. The scheme allows any citizen of India between the age group of 18-40 years to join through the bank or post-office branches where one has a savings bank account.

Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs1,000 to Rs5,000 per month from 60 years, depending on his contribution. The same pension would be paid to the subscriber's spouse after the subscriber's demise. After the death of both the subscriber and spouse, the pension wealth accumulated till age 60 of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee.

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