PFRDA Chairman Hemant G Contractor said government should consider giving tax incentives to pension sector and expand its coverage to include people in the informal sector as they do not have any universal social security net. He said People in the informal sector are not adequately covered under the pension scheme and something has to be done for this class of customers.

In India, only about 11-12 per cent of the working population belong to the organised sector and majority of them are well covered by the government pension schemes. But, the rest 88 per cent belong to the unorganised sector and they are very poorly secured under the pension schemes. The FICCI-KPMG report pointed out the importance of considering higher tax deductions and giving more tax benefits to NPS.

Did You Know???

• The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is a pension regulatory authority which was established by Government of India on August 23, 2003.
• PFRDA is authorized by Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services.
• PFRDA promotes old age income security by establishing, developing and regulating pension fundsand protects the interests of subscribers to schemes of pension funds and related matters.
• PFRDA is responsible for appointment of various intermediate agencies such as Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA), Pension Fund Managers, Custodian, NPS Trustee Bank, etc.