Guwahati: The Swavalamban Pension Scheme for all citizens of low income group in Assam will be implemented by the government in a phased manner beginning from the Social Welfare Department for Anganwadi workers, sources said on Friday.
Under the scheme, a subscriber with a minimum contribution of Rs 1000 yearly will get Rs 1000 contribution from the government and the fund required for this will be provided by the central government, the sources said.
The facility for investment of the pension fund of the individual subscriber would be provided by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) through different Pension Fund Managers, they said.
New Pension Scheme (NPS) is extended by the central government to all citizens from the weaker and economically disadvantaged sections with limited investment potential under the Swavalamban Scheme for those who are not covered by any other Pension Scheme.
The state government had introduced NPS from February 1, 2005 for the new entrants in the state government service replacing the old Pension Scheme.
After operationalisation of NPS for regular employees in October 2010, the Finance Department is now introducing the NPS-Lite for wage earning groups of state government employees such as Muster Roll, Casual, Anganwadi workers.
The benefit of the Swavalamban Scheme can be availed by the NPS-Lite subscribers also, the sources said.
NPS-Lite will be operationalised through the Assam Gramin Vikash Bank as an Aggregator which will facilitate service to all subscribers in registration, collection, fund investment and grievance redressal with support of the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).
All subscribers after enrolment in the system will get a Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) from NSDL, they said, adding, the Swavalamban Scheme will also be extended to Self-Help Groups in rural areas.
Additional Chief Secretary H S Das emphasised in a meeting on the initiative of the heads of departments to give support to their low earning employees who are not on regular pay roll of the government and other workers including unorganised workers by bringing them under the scheme.
Those enrolled in NPS-Lite will be able to reap almost double the benefit of their investment on retirement, Das said. (PTI)