PRFDA: Overseas Citizens of India can enroll in NPS at par with NRIs

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) said on Wednesday that it has now permitted an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) to enroll under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) at par with Non-Resident Indians. Contributions made towards the NPS are eligible for an additional tax deduction up to Rs 50,000 which is over and above the Rs 1.5 lakh limit of deduction available under sec 80CCD(1). NPS is a voluntary defined contribution pension system administered by the government. Like PPF and EPF, it is an EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) instrument where the entire corpus escapes tax at maturity and the entire pension withdrawal amount is tax-free.

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In the Union Budget 2019, tax exemption limit for lump sum withdrawal on exit or maturity from the NPS was increased from 40 to 60% under section 10(12A) of the Income Tax Act. The remaining 40% of the corpus is already tax-exempt as it is mandatorily utilised for annuity purchase. "The government on October 17 issued a notification on Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules 2019 of the Department of Economic Affairs which specifies that an OCI may subscribe to the NPS governed and administered by PFRDA, provided such person is eligible to invest as per the provisions of the PFRDA Act and the annuity/accumulated saving will be repatriable, subject to FEMA guidelines," said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance.

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NPS data

As of 26th October 2019, the total number of subscribers under NPS and Atal Pension Yojana has crossed 3.18 crores and the Asset under Management (AUM) has grown to Rs. 3.7 lakh crores. More than 66 lakh government employees have been enrolled under NPS and 19.2 lakhs subscribers have subscribed to NPS in the private sector with 6,812 entities registered as corporates. Any Indian citizen, resident or non-resident and OCIs are eligible to join the NPS till the age of 65 years.

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