You can now withdraw NPS corpus of Rs 5 lakh without buying annuity

New Delhi: NPS subscribers can now withdraw their entire pension money, without purchasing annuity. In a gazette notification,  the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) said that if the pension corpus is less than Rs 5 lakh, the subscribers can withdraw the entire accumulated pension wealth without purchasing annuity.

Besides, the pension regulator also stated that the premature withdrawal limit on a lumpsum basis for NPS has been increased to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.

As of now, NPS subscribers having a corpus of over Rs 2 lakh need to mandatorily purchase an annuity offered by insurance companies, at the time of retirement or attaining the age of 60 years. They can take out 60 per cent of their corpus as a lump sum.

“…where the accumulated pension wealth in the Permanent Retirement Account of the subscriber is equal to or less than a sum of Rs 5 lakh, or a limit as specified by the Authority, the subscriber shall have the option to withdraw the entire accumulated pension wealth without purchasing annuity and upon such exercise of this option, the right of such subscriber to receive any pension or other amount under the National Pension System or from the government or employer, shall extinguish,” it said.

The regulator also increased the maximum age of entry into the National Pension System (NPS) from 65 to 70. The exit age limit has also been extended to 75 years.