New Delhi: A new kind of pension-cum-savings
scheme is on the anvil which would provide a safety net as
well as liquidity to the holder.
The scheme, called tier II account, may be introduced by
the end of this calendar year, a top official of Pension Fund
Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) said to a news agency.
"We are working on a pension saving account under New
Pension System (NPS) and is likely to be operationalised by
the end of this year," the official said.
The essential feature of this saving account would be
liquidity. Customers needing money in emergency situations
would be able to withdraw their deposited sum.
In this pension saving account, customers can withdraw
almost the entire amount, though a small part might be
retained with the fund manager, as directed by the interim
pension regulator, the official said.
The pension amount withdrawn would be subjected to tax as
it is under exempt-exempt mode like the Tier I account.
Under exempt-exempt, the amount is exempted from tax when
deposited and also when it accrues interest, but tax is
levied at the time of withdrawing the amount.
"Investment patterns and other guidelines would be the
same as applied to Tier I account, which was operationalised
from May 1," the official added.
However, the customers who wants to open the Tier II
account should essentially have a Tier I account.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, August 24, 2009, 19:55