The government has introduced a major change in the Atal Pension Yojana (APY). which was started with the aim of providing pension facilities to those working in the unorganised sector in 2015. And as a result, the Ministry of Finance has now decided not to allow income taxpayers to apply for the APY scheme. According to a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, a person paying income tax will not be eligible to join the scheme from October 1. According to the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Finance on August 10, any citizen who is or has been an income tax payer according to the Income Tax Act will not be eligible to join the Atal Pension Yojana from October 1, 2022.
Atal Pension Yojana Entry Rules:
One must be at least 18 years at the time of enrollment in the scheme. The maximum age to apply for the scheme is 40 years. However, with the new rule in place, income taxpayers won’t be able to participate and invest in the scheme from October 1, 2022.
Benefits:
1) It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.
2) The amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to the spouse on death of the subscriber.
3) In the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.