National Pension System (NPS) withdrawal rules: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has permitted Points of Purchase (POPs) to process the exit/withdrawal applications of NPS subscribers based on soft copies
National Pension System (NPS) withdrawal rules: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has permitted Points of Purchase (POPs) to process the exit/withdrawal applications of NPS subscribers based on soft copies. However, they will have to ensure that the regulations on processing exits are complied with.
As part of additional due diligence, the beneficiary bank details have to be necessarily verified and matched, before authorizing the request of withdrawal based on soft copies. Further, all such records will have to be simultaneously and compulsorily transmitted to CRA through soft copy. The POPs
would be solely responsible should any dispute arise out of such transactions at a later date.
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The pension regulator has taken the above decision in view of the Covid pandemic. “Covid induced hardships continue unabated and in order to alleviate the difficulties being faced by the Subscribers in submitting physical applications for exit/withdrawal and the logistical challenges faced by POPs in collecting those applications to process and dispatch the same to CRA, it has been decided to relax the process of handling withdrawal applications by POPs in the interest of Subscribers,” PFRDA said in a circular.
” PoPs are now permitted to process the exit/withdrawal applications based on the soft copies after ensuring that the regulations on processing exits as mentioned in Chapter III 15 (2c) of POP Regulations are complied with,” the regulator said.
Important date
PFRDA said that the relaxation to POPs will be permitted till 30th June 2021 by which time the ‘online paperless exit process’ based on OTP/e sign is expected to be rolled out by CRA for the benefit of Subscribers. “From 1st July 2021, POPs are expected to be geared up to process the exit requests
of the Subscriber by authorizing the exit documents uploaded by the Subscriber in the CRA system and for which guidelines already issued,” it added.
Old rule
Last year, POPs were allowed to accept the scanned and self-certified images of exit documents through digital means to process the withdrawal requests of the Subscribers. However, the physical applications of those withdrawals applications were to be submitted by POPs to the respective Central Record Keeping Agency (CRA) for storage and record keeping.
