By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 16, 2017: A Conference on Portability from Superannuation and recognized Provident Funds to National Pension System (NPS) was organized by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in coordination with Willis Towers Watson in national capital yesterday. The Prime objective of the Conference was to provide a knowledge base platform to the Corporate by providing solutions to address the issues / challenges of portability of superannuation funds to NPS.

160 participants comprising Corporate, Points of Presence (POPs), Pension Funds, Central Record Keeping Agencies (CRAs) participated in the Conference.

Dr. B. S. Bhandari, Whole Time Member (Economics), PFRDA, highlighted the need to expand the coverage of NPS in an efficient and sustainable way. He asserted the fact that there are more employees in the Corporate - Private sector than in the government sector and hence there is a great potential for NPS in the corporate sector. PFRDA has been constantly engaging with its stake holders in the NPS and has been working with industry associations for promotion of NPS in the Corporate - Private sector. To make NPS entry easy and the interface user friendly, various modifications have been carried out in the product.

Mr Rohit Jain, Head, Willis Towers Watson (India), speaking on the occasion, told that the average life expectancy of persons in India has risen and hence there is a greater need for a retirement / pension product for all. Traditional pension products cover only 30% of the population. In this changing scenario there is a latent demand for product like NPS as there is no universal pension product.

Mr Hemant Contractor, Chairman, PFRDA in his key note address, informed that, earlier, people used to retire from the same job not only in the government sector but also in private sector. With opening up of economy people started getting more job opportunities switching jobs suitable to their skills and talents. Job switching has become more frequent and people seek more controls on their finances, when they start moving jobs and place from one to another. The concept of portability came in and people started thinking about having better control on their retirement savings.

Defined Benefit Pension schemes, which were predominant, became unsustainable not only for the government sector but also for the private sector because of various factors. A Defined Contribution scheme was therefore launched in 2004 which was initially only for Central Government employees, but which was later extended to State Government employees and later to the private sector. This scheme is the National Pension System (NPS), which is regulated by PFRDA.