Swavalamban Scheme: Operational Guidelines

The Scheme and its applicability

1.The scheme will be called Swavalamban Yojana. It will be applicable to all citizens in the unorganised sector who join the New Pension System (NPS) administered by the Interim Pension Fund Regulatory
and Development Authority (PFRDA).

Benefits under the Scheme

2.Under the scheme, Government will contribute Rs.1000 per year to each NPS account opened in the year 2010-11 and for the next five years, that is, 2011-12,2012-13 and 2013-14 upto 2016-17. The benefit will be available only to persons who join the NPS with a minimum contribution of Rs. 1,000 and maximum contribution of Rs.12,000 per annum.

Definitions:

3.Unorganised sector:


For the purpose of this scheme, a person will be deemed to belong to the unorganised sector if that person:

•
is not in regular employ
ment of the Central or
a state government, or an
autonomous body/ public sector underta
king of the Central or state
government having employer assi
sted retirement benefit scheme, or
•
is not covered by a social security
scheme under any of th
e following laws:
•
Employees' Provident Fund and Mi
scellaneous Provisions Act,1952
•
The Coal Mines Provident Fund and
Miscellaneous Provisions Act,1948
•
The Seamen's Provident Fund Act, 1966
•
The Assam Tea Pl
antations Provide
nt Fund and Pensi
on Fund Scheme
Act, 1955
•
The Jammu and Kashmir Employees' Provident Fund Act, 1961
4.
All other definitions as given in the N
PS offer document will
apply to the terms
used in this scheme.

Eligibility:

5.The scheme will be applicab
le to all persons in the unorganised sector subject
to the condition that the
benefit of Central Go
vernment contribution
will be available
only to those persons whose contributi
on to NPS is mi
nimum Rs.1,000 and
maximum Rs. 12,000 per annum, for
both Tier I and II taken t
ogether, provided that
the person makes a minimum
contribution of Rs. 1000 per annum to his Tier I NPS
account.

6.As a special case and in recognition of
their faith in the NPS, all NPS accounts
opened in 2009-10 will be
entitled to the benefit of Gove
rnment contribution under this
scheme as if they were opened
as new accounts in 2010-11
subject to the condition
that they fulfill all the eligibility cr
iteria prescribed under these guidelines.

Funding

7.The scheme will be funded by grants fr
om Government of India. The grants
would be given such that
monthly payment in the sub
scriber accounts would be
possible.

Operation

8.A person will have the option
to join the NPS as an indi
vidual as per the existing
scheme or through the CRA
Lite approved by PFRDA.

9.At the time of joining th
e NPS the subscriber will
have to declare whether
he/she falls within the defi
nition of unorganised sector as
defined in para 3 above and
would also declare that his
contribution would range be
tween Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 12,000
per annum. If subsequent to opening
the NPS account it is f
ound that the subscriber
has made a false declaration about his eligib
ility for the benefits under this scheme or
has been wrongly given the benefit of government contribution under this scheme for
whatsoever reason, the enti
re government contribution w
ill be deducted along with
penal interest as may be specif
ied from time to time.
If the status of the subscri
ber changes to ineligible after
joining the NPS, he/she
should immediately declare so and the bene
fit of government contribution will not
accrue to the subscriber's
account after the date on wh
ich the subscriber becomes
ineligible.

10.At the end of each financial y
ear the CRA will, by 7th
April of the following
year, send to the PFRDA
details of the NPS accounts opened during the year,
showing separately the number of eligible
NPS accounts in which the subscriber's
contribution has been between
Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 12,000.
CRA will also send these
details with individual PR
AN to the Trustee Bank.

Exit from NPS

11.The exit from the Swavalamban Schem
e would be on the
same terms and
conditions on which exit from Tier-I account
of NPS is permitted, th
at is, exit at age 60
with 40% minimum annuitisation of pension w
ealth and exit before age 60 with 80%
minimum annuitisation of pension wealth. Howe
ver, the exit would
be subject to the
overriding condition that the amount of
pension wealth to be annuitised should be
sufficient to yield a mi
nimum amount of Rs. 1,000
per month. If the annuitised
pension wealth does not yiel
d an amount of Rs. 1,000 per
month, the percentage of
pension wealth to be annuit
ised would be increased
so that the pension amount
becomes Rs. 1,000 per month, failing whic
h the entire pension wealth would be
subject to annuitisation. This minimum pensio
n ceiling may be revised from time to
time.

Miscellaneous

12.PFRDA may permit members of an exis
ting pension scheme to migrate to
NPS under such terms and conditions as may be approved by the Government.

Removal of Doubts

13.In case of any doubts on
the eligibility, operation of the scheme or any other
issue, the Central Government will decide th
e matter in consulta
tion with PFRDA and
the decision of the Central Government will be final.







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