Assets Under Management (AUM) of National Pension System (NPS) cross RS. 1 Lac Crore

Assets Under Management (AUM) of National Pension System (NPS) cross RS. 1 Lac Crore 

NPS has been implemented for all Government Employees (except armed forces) joining Central Govt. on or after 01 January 2004. Most of the State/UT Governments have also notified the National Pension System (NPS) for their new employees. NPS has been made available to every Indian Citizen from 01^st May 2009 on a voluntary basis. Further, from 1^st June 2015, the Atal Pension Yojana has been launched which has given the much required impetus to the social security schemes. Currently, NPS and APY together have more than One Crore subscribers with total Assets Under Management (AUM) of Rs.1,00,275 crores. The segment wise status of the NPS and APY as on 03.10.2015 is as under:

Segment	No. of Subscribers	Asset under Management (Rs. Cr.)
Central Government	15,71,136	42,381
State Governments	27,74,459	47,974
NPS-Private Sector	5,24,143	7,943
NPS-Lite/Swavalamban	44,67,733	1,865
Atal Pension Yojana (APY)	7,94,467	112
Total	1,01,31,938	1,00,275

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has taken various steps at the policy as well as operational levels to make NPS more subscriber friendly. In addition to this additional tax benefits made available exclusively to NPS has given a fillip to the scheme. This is further expected to result into a substantial increase in the subscriber base by end March 2016.

The following steps have been taken in the recent past for the convenience of the subscriber:  

·         The investment guidelines for NPS have been revised to expand the investment avenues for optimisation of the returns.

·         Partial withdrawal upto 25% of subscriber’s own contribution for specific purposes like higher education of children, marriage of children, construction of house and specified illness have been allowed to the NPS subscribers after completion of 10 years in NPS.

·         NPS Private Sector subscribers can continue contributing beyond 60 years upto 70 years of age.

·         NPS Subscriber can defer the withdrawal of lumpsum amount upto the age of 70 years and also have the option to defer purchase of annuity upto 3 years from the date of superannuation or 60 years. The funds during this period remain invested in the system.  

·         The Statement of Transactions (SOT) being sent by CRA to the existing subscribers has been modified to reflect the returns of the individual subscriber since the date of account opening and also the return generated during the last financial year.

·         To facilitate and operationalize the deposit of additional contribution of Rs.50,000/- to avail of the additional tax benefit under Section 80 CCD(1B), Government Subscribers already covered under NPS have been  provided the facility to deposit voluntary contributions in their Tier I account through any POP-SP. Government employee covered under old pension scheme can also avail this tax benefit by opening individual Tier I account through any POP-SP and contributing to the same. 

·         Online reset of password and facility to change mobile no.  and email Id have been provided to all the NPS subscribers.

·         SMS alerts on balances in the NPS account being sent to the subscribers on quarterly basis, in addition to regular monthly alerts on contribution and other changes in the PRAN.

APY scheme provides minimum Govt guaranteed monthly pension to subscribers ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000. Further, Govt. of India also co-contributes 50% of the total contribution made by a subscriber during a financial year subject to maximum of Rs 1,000/- per annum for a period of five years, if eligible subscribers open the account by 31st December 2015. All Indian Citizens, in the age group of 18-40 years are eligible to join the scheme through any bank branch. About 8 lakh subscribers have joined APY till date.

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Increased Cooperation Among Customs and Tax Authorities of Different Countries Needed for Smooth Flow of Goods Across Borders : Chairman CBEC. 

The Chairman, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Shri Najib Shah inaugurated the 11th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) of the Directors' General-Commissioners of Customs  at Dona Paula near Panaji in Goa today. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Shah stressed the need to increase cooperation among Customs and Tax Authorities of different countries and  said that efficient customs controls over international movement of goods lead to the promotion of certainty and predictability.   To achieve this, the    emphasis is shifting to automation, single window clearance, and risk management to facilitate the movement of legitimate goods and to focus resources on high-risk areas, he added.  

The Chairman said that in India, it is the declared policy to share information among Customs, Excise, Service tax and the Direct tax departments.  Recognizing the primacy of Customs, the Indian government has appointed inter-agency Customs Clearance Facilitation Committees at the local and national levels to set trade facilitation on a path of continuous improvement, Shri Shah said. 

Representatives from 44 countries and two International Organisations : European Union and ASEAN Secretariat are participating in two- day 11th Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) of the Directors' General-Commissioners of Customs organised by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Ministry of Finance.

Following are the salient features of the  Inaugural Address of Shri Najib Shah, Chairman, CBEC: 

1.                  ASEM, is a process encompassing vast areas of international cooperation on issues related to security, environment, WTO negotiations, culture and much more. It complements the existing bilateral and multilateral fora between Asia and Europe and works informally with the objective of enhancing the synergies between two continents. 

2.                  When ASEM began in 1996, the focus was on prevention of illicit trade in drugs and commercial frauds and simplification and harmonization of customs procedures. Thereafter, in the context of enforcement, customs co-operation to fight against drugs/ chemical precursors/ money laundering/ commercial fraud / and IPRs continued to remain in focus.  

3.                  In 2003, the Seoul initiative added impetus to the efforts towards the harmonization of Customs procedures in Asia. Priority was also attached to Trade Facilitation and Security through Customs Partnership in ASEM. The fight against counterfeiting at national and international levels received a boost in the 6th ASEM at Scotland. Raising public awareness, having the required legislation in place and improving information exchange in this area formed important pillars for ASEM. 

4.                  The next turning point came with the Yokohama Declaration in 2007 where for the first time the priority areas were defined. These were-  

·          Trade Facilitation and Security 

·          Enforcement of IPRs 

·          Protection of our Societies And Environment and  

·          Fight against Fraud.  

 It was recognized that the role of Customs in a changing environment and in an era of new challenges needed to be aligned to the current issues. 

5.                  At Greece, in 2009, the Heraklion Declaration continued on the path of priority areas which had already been identified, adding to them standardisation and simplification, capacity building and visibility of ASEM .  The need for closer co-operation with the business community was also recognised and 'involving business ' gained ground in our process of dialogue and consultation. 

6.                  These priority areas continued to envelop ASEM in 2011 as well and took the shape of the VIENNA Declaration in 2013 where there was a consensus that the umbrella issues of Trade Facilitation /Combating Counterfeiting & IPR enforcement /Protecting the Society and the Environment/Involving Business and Communication and Visibility should continue to be the main pillars of ASEM. 

7.                  Reduction of transaction costs is an important factor towards trade facilitation. Ways should be discovered to make Customs the foremost enabler in creating an environment towards paperless trade. ‘Digital India’ is a flagship program of the Government of India. It envisages complete digitization of government processes and business to government interface. There is a high degree of convergence between digitization of Customs eco-system and the coordinated border management approach. In this digital era, building systems to support digital handshake with every stakeholder (i.e logistics operators, banks, other regulatory agencies) so as to ensure paperless movement of cross border trade is one of the main concerns of every Customs Administration. The maturity of digital handshake with partner agencies within a country would automatically pave way a digital handshake with partner customs administrations, wherever it found beneficial, through either bilateral or multilateral arrangement. Asian, as well as European Customs administrations need to learn a lot from each other in this endeavor.  

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Finance Minister emphasizes the need for standardized information exchange to prevent International Tax evasion and avoidance 

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley has emphasized the need for common reporting standards on Automatic Exchange of Information to be implemented globally to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance.

Intervening in the 49th Annual Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in Lima, Peru yesterday he welcomed the efforts of OECD in the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project and Automatic Exchange of Information which have important implications for commonwealth countries. He emphasized the need to ensure that the Common Reporting Standards on Automatic Exchange of Information are implemented globally on a fully reciprocal basis as this would be a key to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance. He noted that India has been the beneficiary of these two systems by getting vital information on tax evasion.

The meeting of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers also focused on issues relating to Infrastructure Financing and Small States’ Trade Financing Facilities. The Finance Minister is on tour to Peru to attend the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank and other associated meetings.