PFRDA – Facility of Online APY Subscription through Aadhaar e KYC
Circular no. PFRDA/2021/44/SUP-CRA/17
27th October 2021
To,
CRA, APY-SPs
& other stake holders for information
Subject: Facility of Online APY Subscription through Aadhaar e KYC
The Government of India had introduced Atal Pension Yojana (APY), with effect from 1st June, 2015, pursuant to the announcement in the budget for 2015-16 on creating a Universal Social Security system for all Indians, especially the under-privileged and the workers with limited means. APY is being administered by the PFRDA under its administrative and institutional architecture of the NPS.
2. APY notification: APY was notified under Gazette Notification dated the 16th October, 2015 and amended vide notifications dated the 19th January, 2016 and 22nd March, 2016. By use of Aadhaar as identity document, for delivery of services or benefits under APY, it simplifies the Government’s delivery processes, brings in transparency and efficiency of the scheme.
3. APY under Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016: GoI had notified APY under Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 as on 11th May, 2017 and further clarified vide UIDAI circular dt 25th November 2019.
4. APY through e KYC: As of now, the enrollment of Subscribers happens through physical, net banking or other digital modes provided by the respective APY-SPs (APY Service Providers). Now in order to further increase the outreach and simplify the process of Subscription, CRA (Central Record keeping agency) would be providing digital on boarding based through Aadhaar eKYC as an additional option. Aadhaar XML based on boarding has already been made available for the benefit of Subscribers. These processes are paperless.
5. Information flow between CRA & APY-SP Banks: The information fetched from the prospective subscribers through e KYC technology framework viz Aadhaar details, demographic information, pension amount, mode of payment, spouse/nominee name and bank account information etc. shall be shared with the respective banks where the Subscribers’ Savings Bank account is maintained through online information exchange for setting up of auto debit for the specified amount/mode based on the guaranteed pension amount opted by the subscriber. Post opening of APY Account, the subsequent servicing of the Subscribers would be offered by the respective APY-SP.
6. Aadhaar seeding of APY Accounts: All the APY accounts are to be seeded with Aadhaar number for which the CRA will be providing a functionality for facilitating the Aadhaar seeding of the existing APY subscribers through the proper consent mechanism. Additionally, APY-SPs can also collect the Aadhaar details from their associated subscribers with due consent which would then be shared with CRA for seeding.
7. All APY- SP Banks are encouraged to provide e APY link in their respective corporate website for the benefit of their customers and facilitate them with ease of on boarding.
CRA is advised to engage with all APY-SPs for system level integration so as to provide the functionality viz e KYC based APY on-boarding and consent framework for Aadhaar seeding at the earliest.
Yours sincerely,
(K. Mohan Gandhi)
Chief General Manager