ON the heels of the state-owned Nalco joining the new pension system, public sector power firms such as NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) have shown interest in moving their retirement funds to the scheme.
"NTPC and DVC have shown interest in joining the new pension system (NPS). We are holding talks with them," a senior Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) official said on Sunday.
The nation's largest power producer, NTPC, has around 24,500 employees while DVC has over 11,000 in its rolls. Recently, the interim regulator PFRDA wrote to the department of public enterprises to help the Central PSUs bring their employees into the NPS for pension savings beyond the mandatory contributions at 24% of the salary to the employees provident fund organisation.
"We expect more PSUs to put their retirement funds in the coming days into the NPS," the official added. Initially, the NPS was launched for Central government employees joining service from January 1, 2004, but from last May it was extended to all citizens. According to the information available on the PFRDA website, as many as 6,90,274 subscribers have joined the NPS till this January 2, which include 3,119 from the unorganised sector. Out of this, the maximum 5,64,705 subscribers are the Central government employees, apart from 1,20,517 state government employees.
