NPS assets surge 26% YoY to ₹11.94-lakh cr, driven by new subscribers, sizzling equities

Riding on a buoyant equity market, the assets of the National Pension System (NPS) grew 26 per cent year-on-year to touch ₹11.94-lakh crore as of May 11, latest PFRDA data showed.

This overall AUM including that of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) — slightly short of the ₹12-lakh-crore milestone — was higher than as at the endMarch level of ₹11.73-lakh crore.

RETIREMENT PLANNING

The robust NPS asset growth has been driven by both buoyant equity markets and widening subscriber base as more working age Indians take up to retirement planning.

The frenetic pace of overall NPS assets growth can be gauged from the fact that in August 2023 the NPS assets had touched the ₹10-lakh-crore mark.

The NPS took six and half years to reach the ₹1-lakh-crore AUM mark after its implementation in 2009. It then took 4 years and 11 months to hit ₹5lakh crore. The AUM doubled to ₹10-lakh crore as of August 25 last year, in 2 years and 10 months.

NEW SUBSCRIBERS

The number of new NPS and APY subscriber registrations till May 12 stood at 94,009, PFRDA data showed.

Year-on-year, the number of subscribers in the non-government sector as of May 11 rose by 8.77 lakh, while the increase in the government sector was 7.17 lakh. In 2023-24, as many as 9.47 lakh new subscribers joined the NPS from the non-government sector. Of this, 8.10 lakh subscribers were from the ‘all citizen model’ and 1.37 lakh were corporate employees.

The total number of NPS and APY subscribers as of May 11 stood at 7.41 crore, up 16.29 per cent over 6.38 crore a year ago.

The non-government sector

— corporates and retail — NPS assets saw a 26.42 per cent yearon-year growth as of May 11 to ₹2.41 lakh crore.

The NPS assets of the government sector was up 24.12 per cent at ₹9.19-lakh crore. The number of new government employees who joined NPS in 2023-24 stood at 7.10 lakh.

BULL RUN RUB-OFF

The roaring bull run in equities has helped pension funds record a scorching average annual return of 29.12 per cent as of May 10 surpassing corporate bonds by over four-fold, and outperforming government securities and State government schemes

Over the past three years, pension funds achieved an average return of 17.51 per cent in equities, with returns since NPS’ inception coming in at 13.38 per cent for equity investments.

As of May 10, corporate bonds recorded annual return of 7.15 per cent, while G-Secs gave 7.49 per cent. The annual return from Central and State government schemes stood at 9.91 per cent.