Now, Aadhaar is must for Atal Pension Yojana too

New Delhi: Government has made Aadhaar a must to get the benefit of Atal Pension Yojana (APY) through its notification issued today. As per the notification, Atal Pension Yojana has now been included under the Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act. As per the provisions of the Act, any individual who is eligible to receive benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrollment under Aadhaar authentication.

A copy of the notification is attached. Accordingly, an APY subscriber will have to get the Aadhaar number recorded in his or her APY pension account and also in his/her savings account where the periodic pension contribution installments are debited and the Government co-contribution is to be credited.

In case a subscriber is not yet having an Aadhaar card, he/she should immediately get him/her enrolled for the Aadhaar card for which he or she can visit the nearest Aadhaar enrollment centre. The list of all such centers is available on UIDAI website, www.uidai.gov.in. According to a Finance Ministry data, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has identified nearly 12.35-lakh subscribers who are eligible for Government of India co-contribution for an amount up to Rs 1000 for the financial year 2016-17 which will be released to the eligible subscribers’ savings bank accounts which are seeded with Aadhaar.

These subscribers are advised to approach their Bank or Postal Branch for seeding their Aadhaar Number.In recent times, various new initiatives like online viewing of Statement of Transactions (SOT) and online PRAN card under APY have been taken up by PFRDA for facilitating subscribers under the scheme. Atal Pension Yojana currently has more than 54-lakh subscribers with an asset base of more than Rs 2,200-crore.

The Finance Ministry today said with an objective of bringing in transparency, efficiency and to enable beneficiaries to get their entitlement directly in a convenient and seamless manner, Aadhaar card has been constituted as the primary document in identification of the beneficiary under the Aadhaar Act which came into effect from 12th September 2016. (UNI)