Now Nalco also wants to join new pension plan

Government-owned National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has initiated the process of formally joining the New Pension System (NPS) under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

PFRDA officials said that Nalco has started registering its employees as per the NPS requirements set out by the pension regulator. “Nalco has begun the registration process for its employees to get them the account number under NPS. Once the formalities are completed for all the employees, the company would come under the ambit of the NPS. We expect them to complete the formalities shortly,” a PFRDA official told Financial Chronicle.

The officials said that similar moves are expected from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), which has also evinced interest of joining the NPS. DVC had earlier asked the PFRDA to assist it in completion of formalities to be undertaken with the central record-keeping agency (CRA) of the NPS.

The National Stock Depository (NSDL), which is the sole the CRA under the system, would be hosting and facilitating transactions under the NPS.

NPS, a contributory pension scheme devised by the pension regulator, offers non-withdrawable (tier-I) and withdrawable (tier-II) options for its subscribers. The PFRDA has appointed six pension fund managers from whom individual subscribers can choose one to manager their pension corpus.

Among other bodies that have expressed their intent of taking the help of the old age income security sch?eme offered under the NPS is the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). The IBA has signed an agreement with the PFRDA to allow employees of its member banks who join service on or after April 1, 2010, to open subscriber accounts with under the NPS.

The banks that would be adopting the new system are the 20 nationalised banks and a dozen-odd private sector banks. State Bank of India has already signed with the PFRDA under the corpus management provision.