NPS, UPS, APY, NPS Vatsalya Maintenance Charges Revised From October 1; Check New Rates

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has revised the charge structure for the Central recordkeeping Agencies (CRAs) annual maintenance charges (AMC). The new charges will be affective from October 1, 2025. The change is in the National Pension System (NPS), Unified pension Scheme (UPS), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), and NPS Vatsalya scheme. PFRDA stipulated an upper cap on the charges. CRAs cannot charges more than that from the subscribers, however, if they want they can reduce it. For all government rector subscribers, the AMC is a fixed Rs 100, whereas for private sector subscribers, it will be based on the corpus size.

Here are the details:

Government Sector (NPS And UPS)

Notably, if the balance in the account is Zero, no AMC charge will be levied in the account.

There is no change in the welcome kit issuance chares (e-PRAN kit and Physical PRAN card) compared to the existing charges. But AMC and transaction charges have changed. AMC currently is Rs 69, and transaction charge is Rs 3.75 per transaction, per the NPSCRA website.

Private Sector (NPS And NPS Vatsalya)

AMC Charges Slabs:

• Nil charge - If the balance is zero

• Rs 100 – Re 1 to Rs 2,00,000

• Rs 150 – Rs 2,00,001 to 10,00,000

• Rs 300 – Rs 10,00,001 to 25,00,000

• Rs 400 – Rs 25,00,001 to 50,00,000

• Rs 500 – Rs Above 50,00,000

Anuj Kesarwani, a certified financial planner, chartered trust and estate planner, and founder of Zenith Finserve, says, “The revised annual maintenance charges to CRAs are good for new subscribers and the ones with lower investment value. The slab based charges ensure that the small investors pay lower charges linked to their total investment value. Moreover, the charges specified by the PFRDA are maximum.”

These are the upper cap on the charges and in no case the reduced charges will be below the stipulated upper cap of the immediately preceding slab, PFRDA clarifies in the circular.

APY And NPS Lite Accounts

The upper limit for account (PRAN) opening charge is set at Rs 15, for transaction chares it is Nil, and for AMC it is stipulated at Rs 15.  

The revised charges UPS subscribers are applicable only during the accumulation phase. There is no clarity on the charges for UPS under the decumulation phase. PFRDA will issue the guidelines later regarding this.

Kesarwani highlights, “The CRAs have the option to charge lower and display the charges prominently on their website. So, investors can select the CRA among KFin Technologies, Protean eGov Technologies, and (CAMS) based on their charges and quality of service provided.”

So, overall, the new slab-based charges approach in the NPS is expected to benefit subscribers having small corpus.