The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has announced a revised fee structure for services provided by Central Recordkeeping Agencies (CRAs) under the National Pension System (NPS), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), NPS-Lite, and Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).
The new charges will take effect from October 1, replacing the existing framework issued in June 2020.
Charges for government sector (NPS and UPS)
PRAN opening: ₹18 for an e-PRAN kit (default option), ₹40 for a physical PRAN card.
Annual maintenance: ₹100 per account. Accounts with zero balance will not be charged.
Transaction charge: Nil.
Charges for APY and NPS-Lite
PRAN opening: ₹15.
Annual maintenance: ₹15.
Transaction charge: Nil.
Charges for private sector (NPS and NPS Vatsalya)
PRAN opening: ₹18 for an e-PRAN kit, ₹40 for a physical PRAN card.
Transaction charge: Nil.
Annual maintenance (AMC)
Nil balance: Nil
₹1 – ₹2,00,000 corpus: ₹100
₹2,00,001 – ₹10,00,000 corpus: ₹150
₹10,00,001 – ₹25,00,000 corpus: ₹300
₹25,00,001 – ₹50,00,000 corpus: ₹400
Above ₹50,00,000 corpus: ₹500
Key guidelines
The revised charges are upper caps. CRAs cannot charge more but may levy lower or negotiated charges with employers, subscribers, or Points of Presence (PoPs).
For private sector subscribers, the AMC is slab-based, linked to the Tier I corpus.
For UPS subscribers in the government sector, the charges apply only during the accumulation phase. Separate charges may be issued for the payout phase later.
Any new services introduced by CRAs will be charged at actual cost (without markup), subject to PFRDA approval.
CRAs must display the applicable charges on their official websites and mobile apps.
This revision, issued under Section 14 of the PFRDA Act, 2013, marks the completion of the five-year price discovery cycle mandated under CRA regulations.