With an intention of providing retirement income to and encouraging savings amongst the citizens, the National Pension System (NPS) was launched. At the time of launch, it was applicable only to government recruits, but now it is available to all citizens. To encourage people working in the unorganised sector to save, the central government launched the co-contributory pension scheme, whereby the government will contribute a sum of Rs.1,000 to each eligible NPS subscriber who can contribute a minimum of Rs.1,000 and a maximum of Rs.12,000 annually. This scheme was applicable till FY 2016-17. For the subscribers of NPS, it is mandatory to have a Permanent Retirement Account (PRA) where these savings are reflected. This Permanent Retirement Account Number is commonly referred to as PRAN.
Every subscriber is allotted a unique 12 digit Permanent Retirement Benefit Number for a lifetime which is accessible from any location in India. Types of accounts that can be held under PRAN
It is mandatory for all NPS subscribers to have a PRAN.
The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) is the Central Record-keeping Agency (CRA) for NPS. Therefore, applications for PRAN are to be made on the NSDL portal. Once the documents are collated, the subscriber can submit the documents to the Point of Presence–Service Providers (POP-SP). A list of relevant POP-SP can be traced here.
Individuals who wish to open a Tier I or Tier II account:
A subscriber will be required to submit a duly filled form along with supporting KYC documents. If an individual wants to open a Tier II account and has an active Tier I account, then the individual must only file a copy of the Tier I PRAN card along with the Tier II activation form.
Corporates
For subscribers belonging to the corporate sector, a duly filled Form CS-S1 needs to be provided to the corporate office. The minimum contribution required by a subscriber at the time of applying for registration for a Tier I account is INR 500 and for Tier II is INR 1,000.
When the PRAN is generated, the subscriber is alerted through e-mail and SMS on the email ID and mobile number registered with the CRA. As a security measure, only the last four digits of the account number are disclosed in the communications.
As a general practice, the Permanent Retirement Account Number is generated and the printed card and dispatched within 20 days from the date of receipt of the duly filled registration form at the CRA – Facilitation Centre. When a subscriber makes an application for PRA, a 17 digit receipt number is generated and given as an acknowledgement by the POP-SP. The subscriber can check the application status online by giving the acknowledgement number, or with the Nodal Officer.
CRA is the recordkeeping agency for NSDL. It maintains all the records of subscribers. CRA is the first of its kind venture in India which will carry out the functions of Record Keeping, Administration, and Customer Service for all subscribers under NPS – Lite.
No, A subscriber can have only one account.
Yes, it is possible to make an application for both accounts at the same time by filing a composite form.
Yes, all the forms pertaining to Permanent Retirement Account Number are available on the NSDL portal. How to reset and NPS login password There are 2 options to reset the NSDL NPS password:
Under option 1, you can reset your password using the secret question and answer (set by you at the time of login). You only have to enter the PRAN, captcha code(appearing there) and answer your secret question to reset your password.
Under option 2, you can reset your password via One Time Password(OTP) by SMS on your registered mobile number or registered e-mail ID. You have to enter PRAN, DOB, OTP received in the mode selected and the new password to reset your password.