After a lacklustre start, the New Pension Scheme, a safety net thrown open to all citizens of the country in May this year, is slowly picking up with as many as 843 customers joining it in the first two and a half months.
A maximum 164 customers joined the pension scheme through points of presence of the country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority said in a release.
Point of Presence Service Providers (PoP-SPs) are contact and collection points for customers wanting to be part of NPS.
While 160 subscribers collected forms from Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank attracted 106 customers, the release said.
Reliance Capital, with a PoP of 25, managed to attract 73 subscribers, while IL&FS saw 61 customers taking pension scheme through it.
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However, subsidiaries of State Bank of India like State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore could not attract any customer.
Meanwhile, an official of the PFRDA said that the response is tremendous and it will pick up more once the Finance Bill is passed.
The Budget 2009-10 proposed to exempt NPS from securities transaction and dividend distribution tax. But it will be considered under the exempt-exempt-taxed (EET) regime with the maturity amount being taxed unless the money is used for buying annuity in the same financial year.
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This is unlike other competing products like Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund (PPF), which continue to enjoy the exempt-exempt-exempt (EEE) regime and are not taxed at any stage.
