Corporate NPS Need Not Replace EPF; It Can Supplement It, Says Randip Singh Jagpal Of PFRDA

Retirement planning should begin with an individual’s first job, making employers key stakeholders in building a financially secure and pensioned society. This was the central theme of the Retire Smart: Financial Wellness Leadership Series, a collaborative initiative of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Outlook Money. The initiative aims to raise awareness among HR and finance leaders about how the Corporate National Pension System (NPS) can improve employee welfare, strengthen retention, and enhance retirement security.

The nationwide awareness campaign will be held across 28 cities over the coming months. The inaugural session was organised in Noida, the industrial hub of the Delhi-NCR, on August 7, 2026. It brought together PFRDA officials, industry leaders, and HR and finance professionals to discuss how Corporate NPS can help employers strengthen employee benefits and long-term financial security.

Nidhi Sinha, Editor, Outlook Money, highlighted that rising life expectancy, increasing medical inflation, and changing family structure make retirement planning essential for today’s workforce, and stressed that corporates can contribute their part by providing corporate NPS to their employees and making them retirement-ready.

Speaking about the need for corporates’ engagement, Randip Singh Jagpal, Whole Time Member (Law) of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), emphasised that while regulators create policies, the workplace is the ultimate engine that converts these policies into lifelong financial security.

Addressing the shift in Indian demographics, he said that retirement savings must now support individuals and their families for 20-30 years after a regular salary stops. Therefore, India no longer needs just ‘another savings product’, but a “complete pension solution”.

Highlighting the modern scenario where employees change jobs frequently, he stressed that traditional lump sum payments are useful, but they often exhaust quickly.

“That's where the NPS or the national pension system has an important advantage. It brings together several important retirement features. It is professionally managed, low cost, transparent, tax efficient, flexible in investment choices, portable across jobs and locations, and designed specifically for retirement income,” he said.

Unlike fixed deposits (FDs) or mutual funds, which may lack inflation protection or employer-supported discipline, NPS offers a low-cost, professionally managed system.

Corporate NPS was launched in 2009, and since then it has grown multifold; however, not like the other NPS schemes. As of July, 2026, the Corporate NPS had 27,000 registered employers and 2.83 million employees, with around Rs 3 lakh crore assets under management.

He said corporate NPS is a powerful tax-efficient compensation tool for employers, as employer contribution of up to 14 per cent is deductible. This benefit makes it attractive for employees as it transforms their retirement planning from their “personal worry” into a valued part of their employment.

As a large part of the Indian population works in the private sector, corporates need to guide their employees and offer them schemes that could solidify their financial security and retirement planning

The Road Ahead

While some may think of the employees’ provident fund (EPF) as the retirement planning solution with the pension component in-built, Jagpal stressed offering employees a comprehensive solution, not just a scheme, and provided clarity on the two schemes and their use in retirement planning for a comprehensive solution.

He said, “Corporate NPS need not replace EPF. It is something that can supplement it for employees earning substantially over the statutory wage ceiling in case of EPF. The employer can maintain the EPF base and then use corporate NPAs to build an additional retirement corpus.”

“Comply with the laws of the land (by offering EPF), but also help the employee to have additional savings for his retirement.  The message is simple. The EPF can provide the foundation. The corporate NPS can provide the additional pension layer,” he said.

He suggested four practical steps for corporate leaders: review the adequacy of employees’ existing benefits, offer NPS as part of compensation, explain its benefits to employees in simple language, and use new digital platforms, such as NPS Tatkal, Star NPS, and upcoming NPS Central, for their onboarding.

“The employer is the bridge between the pension policy and the pension security,” Jagpal further said, and asked the companies to help employees prepare for the day their salary stops.