A conference for State Governments was organized by PFRDA on 19th
December 2016, at New Delhi to discuss NPS implementation by the state
governments.
In his inaugural address, Chairman, PFRDA, Sh. Hemant Contractor congratulated
winners of awards instituted by PFRDA for the State Government sector. He observed
that the number of subscribers registered in State Government sector has
increased to 32 lacs and also the Assets Under Management is touching approx.
Rs. 79,000 crores. He urged the State Governments to frame timelines for all
the activities specified by PFRDA. Currently, only 11 State Governments have
issued instructions regarding timelines. Besides, framing of NPS rules for the
respective states is also gaining importance and fixation of salary date will
help in fixing accountability. He discussed various changes in product features
and processes which will lead to increase in appeal of NPS. The prominent among
them are mobile app and feature of making contributions through it, increase in
usage of Tier 2 accounts due to increased returns, etc. He also referred to
the various user friendly functionalities developed in coordination with the
Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) for providing ease of transaction to the
subscriber and the nodal offices. He advised the delegates about appointment of
Ombudsman which puts onus on the State Governments to ensure prompt resolving
of grievances in Centralized Grievance Management System (CGMS). He also
discussed about the appointment of second CRA which will provide more choice to
the State Governments. He added that this conference and more in the coming
years would act as a platform for discussion with PFRDA and interactions among States
to share their experiences and practices in order to enhance cross learning.
Shri R. V. Verma, Member (Finance) while welcoming the
participants to the conference commended the substantial improvement in
performance of State Governments since the last such conference held in December
2016. He advised the State Governments to ensure 100% subscriber coverage month
on month. He laid stress on the inclusion of NPS related activities within the
scope of audit of the State Governments. He also emphasised the need for discipline
of remitting of the subscriber contribution especially in view of the enhanced
role of the Government nodal officers as envisaged in the regulations and the
provisions of the Act. He stressed on the need for enhancing capacity building both
at the nodal officer level and subscriber level. Training of nodal officers
will help in enhancing the financial literacy and awareness of the subscribers.
This will also help in fixing accountability of the respective officers with
respect to delays in various activities of NPS.
Dr. B.S. Bhandari, Member (Economics) advised the participants
about the areas of concern which need to be looked on priority. Besides, he
also highlighted the responsibility of nodal officers handling NPS and advised
to know the product & process. He also referred to the mandatory inclusion
of employees under NPS other than those which are covered under EPF. Further,
he urged the participating states to introduce NPS related training programmes
in their own State Training Institutes.
PFRDA instituted awards in April 2016 for the State Government
sector in order to boost the best performers and also to encourage other states
to improve their performance on the same lines. Awards were distributed to
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Mizoram, Odisha, Rajasthan,
Sikkim and UT of Chandigarh on various parameters of NPS implementation, in the
Conference.
Sh. Pravesh Kumar, DGM made a presentation on performance of NPS on
various important parameters. Besides performance, past trends and future
challenges were also discussed in the presentation. The feedback was positively
taken by the participating state governments with the assurance to working
towards plugging the gaps. Sh. Sumit Kumar, NPS Trust made a presentation on pending
withdrawal claims and grievances, with emphasis on early resolution. Sh. Sunil
Samuel, AVP, NSDL made a detailed presentation on new functionalities
introduced in the software, mobile app, online PRAN generation, DDO login, etc.
Officials of 3 states – Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh also made
presentations sharing their best practices.
Sh. Ashish Kumar, General Manager concluded the session by
proposing the vote of thanks.
Currently, NPS has more than 1.03 crore subscribers with total
Asset Under Management (AUM) of more than Rs.1,60,000 crores.
Source : PIB
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