Know how traders, self-employed can secure future through NPS scheme

NPS Scheme for Traders and Self-Employed Persons: The Modi government has brought the National Pension Scheme (NPS) for the self-employed persons and traders in 2019. With the NPS scheme, these individuals can secure their future whose annual turnover is Rs 1.5 crore or less. The interested individuals can login to the official website of NPS at labour.gov.in and maandhan.in in case of any queries and details.

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NPS scheme and its features
The scheme is meant for old age protection and social security of retail traders/ shopkeepers and self-employed persons whose annual turnover is not exceeding Rs. 1.5 crore. These retail traders/ shopkeepers and self-employed persons are mostly working as shop owners, retail traders, rice mill owners, oil mill owners, workshop owners, commission agents, brokers of real estate, owners of small hotels, restaurants and other Laghu Vyaparis.

It is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme, under which the subscriber would receive a minimum assured pension of Rs 3000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years and if the subscriber dies, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50 per cent of the pension as family pension. The family pension is applicable only to spouse.

Eligibility criteria
The eligibility criteria for availing the NPS scheme are as follows:
1) The individual should be a retail trader/ shopkeeper or self-employed persons
2) The entry age of the person will have to between 18 and 40 years
3) The annual turnover of the traders or self-employed persons will have to be Rs. 1.5 crore or below

Documents required
For NPS enrollment, the interested individuals should possess the Aadhar card and Savings Bank Account / Jan Dhan account number with IFSC.

Contribution by the traders and self-employed persons
The contribution of the traders and the self-employed persons will be through the ‘auto-debit’ facility from his/ her savings bank account or Jan-Dhan account from the date of joining NPS-Traders till the age of 60 years as per the chart below. The central government will also give equal matching contribution in his pension account.

Enrollment process
The retail traders, shopkeepers and self-employed persons will be required to visit the nearest Common Services Centre (CSC) and get enrolled for NPS-Traders using Aadhaar Card and Savings bank/ Jan-Dhan account number on self-certification basis. First subscription to be paid in cash and auto debit from next month onwards.

Later, the facility will be provided where the retail traders/ shopkeepers and self-employed persons can also visit the NPS-Traders web portal or can download the mobile app and self-register using Aadhar number/ savings bank account/ Jan-Dhan account number on self-certification basis.

In case of further queries and doubts, the interested individuals can login to the official website at labour.gov.in and maandhan.in.