New Delhi: The government is planning to allow subscribers of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for a partial withdrawal from employees' contribution as the current lockdown to battle Covid-19 has crippled the monetary power of workers in the unorganised sector.
The government circular would be out in a day or two for adding Covid-19 as one of the conditions for partial withdrawal from pension fund by APY susbscribers, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay told PTI.
"In our regulation, we already have an enabling provision of partial withdrawal for specific purposes such as life threatening kind of emergency, or some kind of critical illness and the likes. There we have done a classification that it should include Covid-19 also," Bandyopadhyay said.
He said PFRDA has requested the finance ministry for enabling this provision.
"May be today or tomorrow this circular will be out," said the chairman of the pension fund regulatory body.
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He said as in case of other contingencies of partial withdrawal, the limit of withdrawal has been kept same at 25 per cent of the fund accrued of employee's contribution of the pension amount.
As on March 31, 2019, the number of APY subscribers was 2.11 crore. The total number of subscribers under APY and NPS stood at 3.47 crore.