Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Singh Thakur listed out the various measures that are being taken by the government to increase the enrolment of people under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY). APY, a pension scheme in which the government is a co-contributor, became operational in June 2015 and is open to all citizens in the age group of 18-40 years who have a savings bank account in a bank or post office. Thakur said, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, that the co-contribution amount disbursed by the government in the scheme amounted to ₹57,078,22 lakh till the February of 2021.

Under the scheme, there are five pension slabs of ₹1000, ₹2000, ₹3000, ₹4000 and ₹5000 which are guaranteed by the government at the attainment of 60 years by the subscriber. In case of death of the subscriber, the same pension amount is guaranteed to the spouse of the subscriber.

Here’s a list of steps being taken to increase APY enrolment:

1. Keeping in mind seasonal income earners, the government has changed the mode of payment of contribution by the subscriber to monthly, quarterly, and half-yearly. The only mode available earlier was that of monthly.

2. Subscribers can now upgrade or downgrade the pension amount any time during the financial year. But this can be done only once a year.

3. The government has also made a mobile app to access APY accounts, as well as other facilities like e-PRAN (electronic- Permanent Retirement Account Number) and E-SOT (Online Statement Of Transaction).

In case of death of the subscriber, the same pension amount is guaranteed to the spouse of the subscriber

4. To ease the process of on-boarding for subscribers, an alternate paper-less mode has been approved which will not use net-banking. Other than this, 17 banks have been identified which will offer the onboarding facility using net-banking.

5. A grievance module has also been made available for the existing APY subscribers.

6. The government is also focused on the capacity building of the bank branch officials by conducting various training programmes.