NPS adoption by central public sector enterprises declines slightly in Apr

Adoption of the National Pension System (NPS) by employees of central government and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) declined marginally to 17,459 in April from 18,946 in March, showed latest data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday.

 

Of the new subscribers joining NPS in April under the central government and CPSEs, the share of women subscr­ibers increased marginally to 21.9 per cent from 21.2 per cent in March.  Since the centre has mandated NPS for new employees, analysts believe the monthly subscription figure can be considered a proxy of new employment generation by the Centre and CPSEs.

Similarly, the share of young subscribers (18-28 years) increased to nearly 74 per cent in April from 68 per cent in the preceding month.

 

The NPS data showed the new subscribers under the state governments fell by 42 per cent to 38,909 in April from 66,640 in March.

 

Earlier, a few opposition-ruled states, including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab, had announced a return to the old pension scheme (OPS), thereby abandoning NPS. Hence, it cannot be used as an exact metric to gauge hirings at state level.

 

Managed by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, the NPS is designed on a defined contribution basis, wherein both the subscriber and the employer contribute an equal amount to his/her account. It was made mandatory for all new central government employees from January 1, 2004, except the armed forces and thus the NPS data can be used as a proxy to gauge the number of new jobs created under the central government.