Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)

About Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA):

• It is a statutory regulatory body set up under PFRDA Act enacted in 2014.
• Objective: To promote old age income security by establishing, developing, and regulating pension funds and to protect the interests of subscribers to schemes of pension funds and related matters.
• It  comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance.
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Composition: It consists of a Chairperson and not more than six members, of whom at least three shall be Whole-Time Members, to be appointed by the Central Government.
• Functions:
  • Regulate National Pension System (NPS) and other pension schemes to which PFRDA Act applies;
  • Establish, develop and regulate pension funds;
  • Protect the interest of pension fund subscribers;
  • Register and regulate intermediaries;
  • Laying down norms for management of corpus of pension funds;
  • Establish grievance redressal mechanism for subscribers;
  • Settle disputes among intermediaries and also between intermediaries and subscribers;
  • Train intermediaries and educate subscribers and the general public with respect to pension, retirement savings, and related issues;
  • Call for information, conduct inquiries, investigations, and audit of intermediaries and other entities connected with pension funds;

Key Facts about National Pension System (NPS):

• It is a government-sponsored pension scheme launched in January 2004 for government employees.
• It was opened to all sections in 2009. 
• NPS is mandatorily applicable to Central Government employees (except Armed Forces) recruited on or after 01.01.2004.
• Under NPS, a subscriber can contribute regularly to a pension account during her working life, withdraw a part of the corpus in a lumpsum and use the remaining corpus to buy an annuity to secure a regular income after retirement.

 

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Q1) What is a Pension Fund?

Pension funds, which are also known as retirement funds, is a kind of savings scheme where you (as an employee) invest a small portion of your income/salary into a designated savings plan. The main objective of this plan is to get a steady flow of income after you complete your active years of service.

Source: Deepak Mohanty appointed PFRDA chief