These details must for NPS account opening from July 1

Photo and sign will be must for NPS account opening online from July 1 through OPGM. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority today said in a circular that its recent advisory issued to CRAs for not opening NPS Accounts through OPGM without photo
and signature will now be effective from July 1, 2020. “Based on requests received from various Points of Presence (POPs), the advisory issued to CRAs for not opening NPS Accounts through OPGM without photo and signature shall now be made effective from 1st July 2020.”

The PFRDA provides Online PRAN Generation Module (OPGM) to stakeholders for onboarding of NPS subscribers to enable instant PRAN generation with minimal documentation. Such accounts are deemed irregular til the completion of document verification and recording by the Central Record Keeping Agencies (CRAs).

Through a circular dated April 13, 2020, the regulator had proposed certain changed in the on-boarding process through OPGM to streamline such cases. Also, in view of the nationwide lockdown due to Coronavirus and to facilitate subscribers to open NPS accounts, and deposit contributions, the PFRDA had also decided t extend the timelines of documentation with CRA.

In the April 13th circular, the proposed changes in maintenance of existing NPS accounts and the revised process for on-boarding of NPS Subscribers were:

1.  No new NPS account shall be opened by CRA without photo & signature and CRA shall also not facilitate Corporates or POPs to open such account.
2.  CRAs shall provide the facility for uploading photo and signature online in the accounts, where photo and signature is not updated.
3.  No change in the status of e-NPS accounts.
4. All other PRANs, barring the e-NPS accounts opened till date including those opened in the current Quarter (April-June 2020) shall continue to remain in ‘Active’ status and considering the prevailing lockdown situation, shall be allowed to complete the pending documentation till 30th July, 2020 irrespective of date of opening of those accounts and after which these accounts shall be frozen.
5. The accounts without minimum annual contribution of Rs 1000 in the FY 2019-20 shall be kept in frozen status till the required contributions are made through POPs or through e-NPS.

The PFRDA had also said, “Both the CRAs shall send alerts, if not already sent, to prompt the subscribers with pending documentation to complete the formalities so as to regularize their NPS accounts.”