Taxpayers will not be eligible to join Atal Pension Yojana from October 1

A person paying income tax will not be eligible to open Atal Pension Yojana (APY) account from October 1, 2022, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

In case an investor who is a taxpayer joins the APY scheme on or after October 1, 2022, his or her APY account would be liable to be closed, the ministry said.

“In case a subscriber, who joined on or after October 1, 2022, is subsequently found to have been an income tax payer on or before the date of application, the APY account shall be closed, and the accumulated pension wealth till date would be given to the subscriber," Ministry of Finance said.

APY is a guaranteed pension scheme for Indians that focuses primarily on those working in the unorganised sector.  Under this,  an investor will receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month from the age of 60 years, depending upon his/her contribution.

The same pension would be paid to the subscriber's spouse after the subscriber's demise, and on the demise of both the subscriber and spouse, the pension wealth accumulated till age 60 of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee.

The contribution to the scheme can be made monthly/quarterly/half yearly basis. In case of death of the person, the spouse will receive the pension; on the death of both, the pension corpus will be returned to the nominee.