Directorate of Pension Provident Fund and Insurance(DoPPFI)

 Annuity in the context of NPS refers to the monthly payment that will be received by the subscriber from the Annuity Service Provider after his exit from NPS. Annuity Service Provider is an IRDA registered insurance company empanelled by PFRDA for providing of Annuity Services to NPS subscribers upon their exit from the system. ASPs will be responsible for managing the funds (allocated for buying annuity) and payment of the pension after a subscriber attains the age of 60. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has empanelled the following seven IRDA approved life insurance companies for providing annuity services to the subscribers of National Pension System (NPS).

At present seven ASPs are providing the Annuity services to NPS Subscribers. The ASPs are as follows:

1. Life Insurance Corporation of India
2. SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
3. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
4. HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd.
5. Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

The contact details of the ASPs is available at https://www.npscra.nsdl.co.in/annuity-service-providers.php or you can download it from NPS Links section.

The different type of Annuity options are:

1. Annuity/ pension payable for life at a uniform rate.
2. Annuity payable for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years certain and thereafter as long as the annuitant is alive.
3. Annuity for life with return of purchase price on death of the annuitant.
4. Annuity payable for life increasing at a simple rate of 3% p.a.
5. Annuity for life with a provision of 50% of the annuity payable to spouse during his/her lifetime on death of the annuitant.
6. Annuity for life with a provision of 100% of the annuity payable to spouse during his/her lifetime on death of the annuitant.
7. Annuity for life with a provision of 100% of the annuity payable to spouse during his/ her life time on death of annuitant. The purchase price will be returned on the death of last survivor.

It is compulsory for the NPS Subscribers to purchase an annuity product from empanelled ASPs at the time of Superannuation and Pre-mature exit. The Subscriber selects the ASP at the time of submitting the withdrawal request or after the payment of Lumpsum withdrawal (maximum 60% & 20% can be withdrawn in case of Superannuation & Pre-mature Exit respectively).

Only monthly annuity is allowed under NPS.

Duration of the annuity policy is dependent upon the annuity scheme opted by Subscriber.

Annuity amount is dependent upon the duration of annuity policy & annuity purchase amount.

The minimum age to receive annuity are predefined by each ASP. For example, HDFC and LIC offers the annuity from the age of 30 while SBI Life offers the annuity only after Subscriber reaches 40 years of age.

Once the Withdrawal request is processed and NPS corpus is remitted to Subscriber’s opted ASP, monthly annuity will be issued by the concerned ASP.