Swavalamban pension plan targets 80 lakh subscribers by FY15

Government is targeting about 80 lakh (8 million) subscribers under its Swavalambam pension scheme, a part of the ambitious financial inclusion Jan-Dhan Yojana, by the end of this fiscal year, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman said on Thursday.

"It is already part and parcel of the Jan-Dhan scheme.

The Swavalamban product is already there. We have right now about 30 lakh (3 million) subscribers under the Swavalamban scheme.

". . . we are targeting 80 lakh subscribers by the end of this fiscal year," Chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority R V Verma said on the sidelines of Skoch Summit in New Delhi.

He said the pension scheme is specially targeted towards the lowest segment of the population.

Verma said the banking industry is working in close co-ordination with the PFRDA and the Ministry of Finance to cover more people under the scheme.

Earlier during his address on the 'Skoch: Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' summit, Verma said: "The mission mode form of financial inclusion is to be a game changer.

“It needs to be given a mission mode format or else it will not work."

He said the products under Jan-Dhan scheme should be available to a larger section and should be economically viable.

There is also a need for the deepening of the financial sector so that the benefits reaches  a larger section of the society, he said.

"Banks have to really go down. Products should be affordable and it should be provided to them at the least cost," Verma said.

However, he said, there are few challenges in this regard.

"It is a financial sector intervention so it should be reform oriented and should be commercially viable, socially acceptable and sustainable.

"We are incentivising the beneficiaries and trying to generate more wealth," he said.

He said the last-mile connectivity could be a reality with this new form of financial inclusion and there is no alternative but to have robust and sturdy Information Technology-enabled process to make it a success.