New Delhi: Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (Gurugram chapter) organized a ‘Webinar on National Pension System for Corporates’ with the theme of ‘Importance of Retirement Planning – Role of NPS.’ Around 90 corporates were present during the webinar. Shri Supratim Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) was the keynote speaker of the webinar.

Shri Bandyopadhyay began his speech with a question that “Are we prepared for retirement?” and stated that “The answer is NO.” He said this is not only the case with India, but the situation is similar even in developed countries. Whether it is advanced, developing or the other, all countries are facing the problem of retirement planning, the PFRDA Chairman observed.

He said, “By 2050, one out of five people will be of more than 60 years old. Not only because the population in India is aging fast, joint family system has been broken down and longevity too is another ticking bomb. Therefore, early planning for retirement is very much required.”

He noted, “One has to have substantial amount of corpus, as in most of the cases it is seen that due to longevity, people have outlived their accumulated corpus, and has much relevance to India with citizens having better immunity system as learnt during this pandemic. Therefore, it is essential to plan for pension now.”

National Pension System ensures right kind of retirement planning as there is an inbuilt mandatory requirement of annuity purchase with 40% of the accumulated corpus. NPS is not only cost effective but one of the safest ways of creating pension corpus.

The average percentage of corporate employees joining NPS is only two per cent (2%), and here comes the role of Corporate/employers to nudge their employees and motivate them to join NPS.

The total asset under management under NPS & APY amounts to over Rs 5 lakh 65 thousand crores. So far 8,300 corporates have registered with PFRDA, from which more than 11 lakh corporate employees are on board in NPS.