New Functionalities released under National Pension System

PFRDA takes various initiatives from time to time in order to simplify and improve the operational issues in National Pension System

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has been established by the Government of India for regulation and development of Pension Sector in order to protect the old age income security of subscribers. PFRDA takes various initiatives from time to time in order to simplify and improve the operational issues in National Pension System (NPS) like new functionality development under NPS architecture, simplification of account opening, withdrawal, grievance management etc. In this regard, recently many new functionalities have been released by the Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) to provide the ease of operation for the benefit of subscribers and nodal offices. These are detailed below:

Functionality released in CRA system recently for the benefit of NPS subscribers:

Sr. No.	Functionalities	Benefits Description
1	Contribution upload for shifted subscribers	Point of Presence (POPs) were previously allowed to upload the regular monthly contribution in the CRA system only for the subscribers pertaining to their associated Corporate. Now, a POP can also upload the contribution for subscribers who have shifted from one of their associated Corporate to another associate Corporate.
2	One way switch	Currently, there is no provision for transfer of funds from Tier-II to Tier-I account. Now, the POP can process a subscriber request to transfer funds from Tier II to Tier I account. Such transactions can be processed only for subscribers under All Citizens of India Model or Corporate Sector Model having active Tier I and Tier II accounts, subject to the availability of adequate holdings in the Tier II account. There is no limit (minimum or maximum) on the amount and number of one way switches that can be requested by a subscriber.
3	Upload of unequal contribution for Govt. employees	In case of Govt. sector employees, the Uploading Office is required to prepare and upload the contribution file wherein the Employee and Employer Contribution are equal for each subscriber. This functionality will now allow the Uploading Offices to prepare and upload contribution files where Employer and Employee contribution amount are not same.
4	Processing of voluntary contribution for corporate subscribers through any POP	Currently, POPs are allowed to upload contributions for corporate subscribers only if the Corporate is associated with them. With the release of this new functionality, the POPs can process the ‘Voluntary’ contributions made by any Corporate subscriber even if they are not associated to them.
5	Functionality for nodal offices on Tier – II operations and voluntary contribution processing	The Govt. sector Nodal Offices have now been provided with utility for activating the Tier II account and its operation for all Government employees. The Government subscribers (mandatorily covered under NPS) can also approach their associated Nodal Office for making additional investment (Voluntary Contributions) in their PRAN – Tier I account.
6	Insertion of QR Code facility on backside of PRAN	The QR code is a matrix barcode and is used to store URL of websites. The QR code can be converted to data by using a smart phone. The application to read QR code is available as free application for all smartphone users. Further, utility to convert website URL to QR code is also freely available online.
7	Grievance resolution by monitoring office in CRA system	In case of Govt. sector nodal offices, only the PAOs/DTOs can provide resolution remarks for the grievances raised against them by their associated subscribers in Central Grievance Management System (CGMS) module. However, the mapped Pr.AOs/DTAs can only monitor the status of the grievances (using ‘Token No’) raised against underlying PAOs/DTOs. Now, with the new facility made available in the CRA system, the Pr.AOs/DTAs along with the PAOs/DTOs can provide resolution remarks to the grievances raised against the associated office.
8	Pop – Up window for resolution of pending grievance in CRA system	To aid the Nodal Offices, a pop-up alert is displayed on the home page immediately after the User logs in to CRA website (www.cra-nsdl.com). The pop-up displays the count of grievances pending (if any) for more than 30 days. The User have two options i.e., either to resolve the grievances immediately by selecting the option ‘Resolve Now’ (which will guide the user to ‘grievance resolution’ screen) or to select ‘Resolve Later’ to continue with regular operations and provide resolutions to the grievances later. The pop-up window is a reminder to all the Nodal Offices which have any grievance pending for resolution beyond 30 days in Central Grievance Management System (CGMS) module.
9	Functionality for capturing bank details and contact details of the nodal offices	A facility has been provided to Nodal Offices of Central Government to enter the contact details of their Nodal Officer (along with details of alternate Nodal Officer) and the Bank account details of respective Nodal Office in CRA system. This will help Trustee Bank and CRA to identify the nodal offices for better coordination.