The National Pension System (NPS) regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory
and Development Authority (PFRDA) has delivered double digit returns for
the financial year 2012-13 and has evidenced itself as not just being
the cheapest retirement product but also as the highest returns
generating scheme.
PFRDA advises that various NPS schemes have earned the following average
annual returns during the financial year recently ended on 31st March,
2013 (Weighted Average):
| Sr. No. | Scheme | Average returns (in %) |
| 1 | Central Government | 12.39 |
| 2 | State Government | 13.00 |
| 3 | Swavlamban | 13.40 |
| 4 | Private: Equity | 8.38 |
| 5 | Private: Corporate Debt | 14.19 |
| 6 | Private: Government Debt | 13.52 |
Last year PFRDA had issued revised guidelines for Registration of
Pension Fund Managers to manage NPS for Private sector, under which
eight Pension Fund Managers have been registered so far- SBI Pension
Funds Pvt. Ltd., UTI Retirement Solutions Ltd., LIC Pension Fund Ltd.,
Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund Ltd., Reliance Capital Pension Fund Ltd.,
ICICI Prudential Pension Funds Management Co. Ltd., HDFC Pension
Management Co. Ltd. and DSP Black Rock Pension Fund Managers Pvt. Ltd.
Pension Fund Managers are now allowed to prescribe their own fee subject
to ceiling of 0.25% to enable an economically viable model for their
operations.
PFRDA also recently revised its Investment Guidelines, with a view to
improve performance of Pension Fund Managers by direct investment in
equity & corporate debt and not through mutual funds etc. Further
for better risk management prudential sectoral norms have also been
introduced.
The National Pension System which was introduced by the Central
Government in January 2004 for its new entrants and subsequently
extended to the private sector in May 2009 has accumulated a corpus of
Rs 33,000 crores contributed by 50 lakhs subscribers.
Source: www.90paisa.blogspot.in
