New Delhi: Income tax payers will not be eligible for this Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a universal social security scheme, from October 1, according to an official order.
In a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, it has been said that from October 1, any citizen who is or has been an income tax payer will not be eligible to join this scheme.
If any subscriber of the scheme, who has joined on or after 1st October 2022, is later found to be an income tax payer on or before the date of application, the APY account will be closed and the accumulated pension amount till now will be as of the order. will be given to the customer accordingly.
For this purpose, an income tax payer shall mean a person who is liable to pay income tax in accordance with the Income Tax Act as amended from time to time.
The move to limit the coverage of beneficiaries is part of the government’s efforts to better target welfare measures to the needy. In the last few years, the government’s effort has been to wean away the financially affluent welfare schemes, so that the funds reach the target beneficiaries more effectively. The Fifteenth Finance Commission has also suggested this.
Atal Pension Yojana was launched in 2015 to create a universal social security system for citizens, especially the poor, underprivileged and workers in the unorganized sector. It is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). It is currently open to all bank account holders in the age group of 18 to 40 years and the contribution varies depending on the pension amount chosen. Subscribers will get guaranteed minimum monthly pension at the age of 60 years.
Monthly pension will be available to the subscriber and his/her spouse on the death of the subscriber, and after their death, the pension corpus accumulated at the age of 60 years of the subscriber will be returned to the subscriber’s nominee, as prescribed by the Department of Financial Services. As per the information provided by.
The department stated that in case of premature death of a subscriber, the spouse can continue to contribute to the subscriber’s account for the remaining vesting period, till the original subscriber attains the age of 60 years. The government will guarantee the minimum pension.
The department explained that if the accumulated corpus based on contributions earns less than the projected return on investment and is insufficient to provide minimum guaranteed pension, the central government will fund the inadequacy. The department said that if the return on investment is high, then the subscribers will get more pension related benefits.
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