Pension regulator defers online version of NPS

October 5, 2015

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has deferred the launch of the online version of the National Pension System (NPS) in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order on Aadhaar card, Chairman Hemant Contractor has said.

The online version of NPS was eagerly awaited, as it could have made the product popular among the Indian public, further bringing down transaction costs.

In view of the Supreme Court order — which prohibits the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) from sharing subscriber information with third parties, PFRDA is now exploring a non-Aadhaar based mechanism for meeting the know-your-customer (KYC) requirement, Contractor told BusinessLine on the sidelines of a financial inclusion summit, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

Although the apex court order has come as a setback for PFRDA’s efforts, the pension regulator is determined to go ahead with the launch of an online version of NPS. “We are not dropping our plans (to launch online version). We will do it, but it will take more time,” Contractor said.

PFRDA was till recently looking to launch an online NPS version that entirely depended on the Aadhaar card details for the KYC requirement.

“Everything was almost ready from our end. This would have been an Aadhaar-based facility. We were ready to launch it in few weeks from now,” he added.

The earlier plan of depending on Aadhaar for KYC requirement would have meant that a person wanting to join NPS would have to give his Aadhaar number.

“Based on that number, PFRDA would have checked with UIDAI whether the person was indeed the person he claims to be. Now, that checking cannot happen, as we can’t do KYC through Aadhaar card,” he said.

K. R. Srivats
This article was published on August 24, 2015, in BusinessLine (The Hindu)