The number of subscribers under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) increased 23 per cent to over 6.24 crore as of March 4, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

Of this, there was over 28 per cent growth in APY subscribers and more than 1 crore new customers were added. The total pension assets under management (AUM) under NPS and APY grew 23.45 per cent year-on-year to Rs 8.82 lakh crore as of March 4, 2023.

"The number of subscribers under various schemes under the National Pension System (NPS) rose to 624.81 lakh as of March 4th 2023 from 508.47 lakh on March 5, 2022, showing a year-on-year (y-o-y) increase of 22.88 per cent," the ministry said in a statement.

As of March 31 last year, the total number of NPS subscribers was 5.20 crore.

Of the total 6.24 crore subscribers currently, 23.86 lakh and 60.72 lakh are central and state government employees, respectively. Corporate subscribers stood at 16.63 lakh.

The number of APY subscribers rose 28.4 per cent to 4.53 crore as of March 4, 2023.

The government introduced APY on June 1, 2015, to provide social security to workers, mainly in the unorganised sector. Subscribers of the scheme get a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after attaining 60 years of age, depending on their contributions. However, from October 1, 2022, income taxpayers were barred from enrolling under the APY.

National Pension System (NPS) mainly caters to organised sectors, including all government employees in the centre and states while the APY is mainly meant for the employees working in the unorganised sector in the country.

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