NPS (National Pension Scheme)

National Pension System Trust (NPS Trust) is a specialised division  of pension fund  which is under the juridiction of ministry of finance of the government of india. The National Pension System (NPS) is a voluntary defined contribution pension system in india. National Pension System, like ppf and epf is an EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) instrument in India where the entire corpus escapes tax at maturity and entire pension withdrawal amount is tax-free.

NPS started with the decision of the government of india to stop defined benefit pensions for all its employees who joined after 1 April 2004. While the scheme was initially designed for government employees only, it was opened up for all citizens of India between the age of 18 and 65 in 2009, for OCI card holders and PIO’s in October 2019. On 26 August 2021, PFRDA increased the entry age for the National Pension System (NPS) from 65 years to 70 years. As per the revised norms, any Indian Citizen, resident or non-resident and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) between the age of 65–70 years can join NPS and continue or defer their NPS Account up to the age of 75 years. It is administered and regulated by the pfrda

On 10 December 2018, the Government of India made NPS an entirely tax-free instrument in India where the entire corpus escapes tax at maturity; the 40% annuity also became tax-free. Any individual who is Subscriber of NPS can claim tax benefit for Tier-I account under Sec 80 CCD (1) with in the overall ceiling of Rs. 1.5 lac under Sec 80 C of Income Tax Act. 1961. An additional deduction for investment up to Rs. 50,000 in NPS (Tier I account) is available exclusively to NPS subscribers under subsection 80CCD (1B). The changes in NPS was notified through changes in the income tax act during the 2019 union budget of india There is no tax benefit on investment towards Tier II NPS Account. NPS is limited EEE, to the extent of 60%. 40% has to be compulsorily used to purchase an annuity which is taxable at the applicable tax slab.