The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) published a consolidated fee structure for points of presence (PoP) charged from subscribers registered under All Citizens, Corporate, and NPS Lite/Swavalamband categories in a master circular issued on April 25.

PoPs are intermediaries between PFRDA and subscribers that provide NPS services, such as receipt of NPS forms, verification, processing requests, updating details, depositing money in the NPS account, and handling grievances, if any.

According to the NPS Trust, “They perform functions through their network of branches called PoP Service Providers (POP-SP). The POP-SPs’ operations are coordinated and controlled by the POP. A PoP-SP is the first point of contact between you and the NPS.”

POPs collect charges as stipulated by PFRDA from time to time. The latest fee structure, outlined in the April 25 master circular, has become effective since its issuance date.

Here are the latest charges.

Charges To Be Collected Upfront:

The minimum registration charge is Rs 200, and the maximum is Rs 400.

For the initial contribution, and all subsequent contributions, the charges are up to 0.50 per cent of the contribution, subject to a minimum of Rs 30 and a maximum of Rs 25,000.

For all non-financial transactions, the charges are Rs 30 (Fixed and Non-negotiable).

Persistency Service: 

“Persistency charge will be applicable on accounts under NPS-All Citizen Model where the subscribers are associated with the PoPs for more than six months in a financial year,” according to the circular.

For persistency service, the charges are deducted by cancelling units. These charges are only for the NPS All Citizen category. The charges are Rs 50 per year for an annual contribution of Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,999, Rs 75 per year for a yearly contribution of Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000, and Rs 100 per year for an annual contribution above Rs 6,000.

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E-NPS Charge For Subsequent Contributions:

These charges are collected upfront and apply only to NPS All Citizen and Tier-II Accounts. They are 0.20 per cent of the contribution, subject to a minimum of Rs 15 and a maximum of Rs 10,000.

Trail Commission For D-Remit Contributions:

Trail commission is charged periodically through unit deduction. The charges are 0.20 per cent of the contribution amount, a minimum of Rs 15, and a maximum of Rs 10,000. The trail commission applies only to the NPS-All Citizen and Tier-II Accounts.

Charges For Exit Or Withdrawal Processing:

These charges are collected upfront. One is required to pay 0.125 per cent of the corpus, with a minimum of Rs 125 and a maximum of Rs 500.

Note that the minimum contribution per transaction is Rs 500, and the minimum per year is Rs 1000.

For NPS-Lite/ Swavalamband, the charges effective from April 1, 2017, are:

The charges for subsequent transactions are 0.25 per cent of the subscriber’s contribution deposited in NPS-Lite in a financial year, with a minimum of Rs 20. Any other transaction that does not involve contribution will attract a charge of Rs 10 per transaction. The charges will be deducted from the units at the end of the financial year.

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PoPs must properly disclose the charges to subscribers for their different services. The circular states that aggregators are not allowed to deduct any charge or fee upfront for NPS-Lite or Swavalamban subscribers.