The facility would be there from the beginning as only those companies will be given license to operate in the pension sector and only those centres would be allowed to collect money which have electronic connectivity, interim pension regulator D Swarup told PTI in New Delhi.
The collection centres will also have electronic connectivity, Swarup said. It means that a subscriber can deposit money in any collection centre and it would be credited to its unique account number unlike in the present scheme of mutual funds and insurance companies where the money has either to be deposited in a particular branch or offices of a particular company only.
The Department of Posts would be involved in a big way as collection centre, he said. "Subscribers can deposit money anywhere they want, in the nearest post office, bank, any collection centre, provided they are all licensed," he said. UAN will also enable a subscriber to freely choose between schemes of a pension fund or between pension funds.
"This kind of flexibility would be there in the proposed scheme, not available currently in any financial product," he said.
Besides electronic connectivity, other criteria that pension funds would have to satisfy would include minimum capital requirement, track record, human resource handling capability and countrywide reach.
The PFRDA bill, draft of which has been vetted by the Law Ministry, is yet to be introduced in Parliament.