New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has officially notified the operationalisation of the Unified Pension Scheme under NPS Regulations 2025.
This follows the UPS notification dated January 24, 2025, by the Centre for Central government employees covered under the NPS. The regulations will come into effect from April 1, 2025, according to an official statement issued on Thursday.
These regulations enable the enrolment of three categories of Central government employees. The first category covers existing Central government employees in service as on April 1, 2025, who are covered under the NPS, while the second category includes new recruits in the Central government services, who join service on or after April 1, 2025. The third category includes Central government employees who were covered under NPS and who have superannuated or voluntarily retired or have retired under Fundamental Rules 56(j) on or before March 31, 2025, and are eligible for the UPS or the legally wedded spouse in case of a subscriber who has superannuated or retired and has demised prior to exercising the option for the UPS.
The enrolment and claim forms for all these categories of Central government employees will be available online from April 1, 2025, on the website of Protean CRA – https://npscra.nsdl.co.in
The employees also have the option to submit the forms physically, the official statement said.
The PFRDA notification said the exercise of the option for an eligible employee to be covered under the UPS shall be undertaken within three months from April 1, 2025. New employees who join on or after April 1 will get 30 days to exercise the option. “The option once exercised shall be final and irrevocable,” the notification said.
An employee, who is an NPS subscriber and who will retire on or before March 31, 2025, will be eligible to opt for the UPS. Also, the legally wedded spouse of a subscriber who has superannuated or retired and passed away before exercising the option for the UPS can also join the new scheme.
Under UPS, while the government contribution will be raised to 18.5 per cent from 14 per cent, there will be no change in the employee contribution, which remains at 10 per cent of basic pay plus DA (Dearness Allowance).
The entire pension corpus will be divided into two funds. The first will be an individual pension fund to which the employee contribution and matching government contribution will be credited, and the amount will be invested as per the choice of investment made by the individual employee. The second will be a separate pool corpus with only the additional government contribution (8.5 per cent of basic and DA of all employees) and will be invested separately.
The notification has rules for the operationalisation of the scheme, which is designed to have five major benefits: assured pension, assured family pension, assured minimum pension, inflation indexation, and lump sum payment at superannuation in addition to gratuity, all in one comprehensive package. It is available for government servants who have joined the service on or after January 1, 2004, or who will be joining from now on, with the facility of a one-time switch from the NPS to the UPS. It will also be available on an optional basis to state governments for their employees.
–IANS
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