Hyderabad: Atal Pension Yojana, a savings scheme launched by the NDA government last year, has received poor response in the state, with only 41,000 people enrolling so far.
At the national-level, about 19.77 lakh people have enrolled since its launch in June, 2015. The scheme provides a fixed monthly pension ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after the applicant reaches 60 years.
Banking officials say the response reflects the mindset of the people who generally do not take retirement planning seriously. The APY is open to all Indians aged between 18 and 40 years and has a minimum tenure of 20 years.
As per the scheme, the Central government will contribute 50 per cent of the contribution made by the investor for a period of five years.
However, this is applicable for only those subscribers who invest less than Rs 1,000 per year and those who join the scheme before March 31, 2016. Those with taxable income are also not eligible.
The scheme was launched to provide retirement income, especially for people in the unorganised sector not covered by any social security schemes like EPF, gratuity, pension etc.
Even out of this 41,000 who had enrolled for the scheme, nearly 37,000 hold bank accounts in public sector banks while the remaining have accounts in private banks.
The Centre has set itself a target of 2 crore subscribers by March 31, 2016 but could not achieve even 10 per cent of the target so far.
