Atal Pension Yojana Alert: Avoid penalty, regularise APY account between 1 July and 30 September

A great news for all account holders of Atal Pension Yojana (APY). The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) which administers the APY scheme has announced that there will be no penal interest charged to the APY subscribers if they regularise their APY accounts by depositing non-deducted APY contributions along with regular APY contributions between 1 July 2020 and 30 September.

In a big relief to the subscribers, the PFRDA stopped auto debits from saving accounts of all APY subscribers with effect form 11 April till 30 June 2020. However, there is a small caveat. While the PFRDA has given APY subscribers a window to not contribute towards the government scheme for 3 months, it has asked the subscribers to compensate for the contributions for this period within the subsequent 3 months to avoid any penalty. 

The modalities of payment of' this non-deducted APY contributions along with regular contributions shall be communicated in due course, a PFRDA release said.

The step has been taken in view of the hardships being faced by the people amid the coronavirus lock down leading to financial crunch among the people at the bottom of the pyramid.

"The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has impacted adversely to all the sections of the society, however, it is known fact that the disadvantaged and poor are most vulnerable to the economic effects of the said disease," the release said.

As per the PFRDA, majority of of APY subscribers belong to the lower strata of the society who are likely to "suffer the most during the lock-down and post lock-down for some period. In such scenario, it may be difficult for them to keep contributing to the scheme regularly during such period."

"It has been decided by the competent authority to stop auto-debiting savings account of the subscribers for APY contribution till 30th June 2020. Also no penal interest will be charged to the APY subscribers if they regularize their APY accounts by depositing such non-deducted APY contributions along with regular APY contributions between 1st July, 20th and 30th Sept, 20," the release said. 

"All APY-SPs are advised to stop auto-debiting the savings account of the subscribers for APY contribution amount with immediate effect," the release further said.

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 Under the APY scheme, the subscribers enjoy the facility of auto debit of the contribution amount from their savings account.