Chennai: The National Pension System (NPS) will not only assure you a good corpus at the time of retirement but also help you get rich before you retire, chief general manager of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Sumit Kumar said.Speaking at the ‘Retire Smart India’ event held in association with TOI here on Friday, Sumit said financial security at the time of retirement was the need of the hour as the Indian population was ageing fast. “A UNDP report says by the middle of this century, almost 20% of our population will cross the age of 65 — meaning one among every five people will be in this age bracket. At present, this figure is just 10% of the population. A NITI Aayog report says that 70% of our elderly population do not have income security,” he said, adding that retirement planning must become a priority goal for people from a young age and NPS was the right platform to invest in.
Elaborating on the goals of the PFRDA, the regulator for NPS, Sumit said the authority planned to expand its footprint in the MSME and gig workers’ segments. “We are working to enrol close to one crore people in these sectors under the NPS in the next one year. In the next four years, we look to cover at least 25 crore people,” he added.The event also featured panel discussions from industry experts who largely adopted the NPS, and who spoke on the challenges faced by corporates in getting employees to adapt to this pension system.Ravikrishna Iyer, president of institutional business, ICICI Prudential Pension Funds, said NPS was here to stay and the changes brought in by the PFRDA were promising.K Kumaresan, chief investment officer, SBI Pension Funds, said it was the responsibility of all company management to make NPS successful.Rohit Kumar Agrawala, chief investment officer, LIC Pension Fund, said confidence among employees will only be built through transparency in structure, automation and discipline. “When implemented right, they will nudge people to move towards NPS.”Prasanna Kumar Acharya, chief pension strategy officer, Axis Pension Fund, lauded the NPS and suggested that PRDFA streamline measures to enrol contractual employees.
