PFRDA Extends NPS E-Shramik Incentive Framework By One Year Till March 31, 2027

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has officially extended its incentive framework for the NPS e-shramik (Platform Service Partner) Model for one year to March 31, 2027.

Per the circular dated August 18, 2026, the authority will continue providing a financial incentive of up to Rs 100 to the Points of Presence (PoPs) for each new account opened under this model.

This model has been designed for the gig and platform workers whose income is not fixed but task-based. Launched in October 2025, this model aims to provide these workers, who are engaged with online aggregators, with structured retirement benefits. To encourage the adoption and spread awareness about the scheme, the PFRDA announced a Rs 100 incentive per new account for PoPs to educate partners, build digital systems, and expand old-age income security within this segment of people. However, this was applicable only till March 31, 2026, which has now been extended by one year till March 31, 2027.

NPS E-Shramik Model To Bridge The Social Security Gap

This model is specifically for gig workers engaged with a digital platform under a contract for service. It terms them as Platform Service Partners (PSP). In the last few years, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several platforms have emerged, such as Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola, Urban Company, and many more. They have changed how the employer-employee system has worked for years by providing flexible hours and task-based jobs instead of the traditional full-time, in-office jobs. Due to the missing employer-employee relationship in these cases, the workers remained outside the ambit of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). NPS e-Shramik has been launched to fill this gap by providing such workers with a non-private product.

How Does It Work?

The model places the responsibility for compliance with the PFRDA Act, 2013, and related 2018 regulations on PoPs, instead of the aggregators.

The Platform Aggregators (gig worker employers) have been kept free from direct regulatory registration. They are assigned a specific "Platform Aggregator Code" for registration of their workers within the Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) system.

The model doesn’t require a fixed contribution. It doesn’t mandate a minimum or a maximum limit on contributions. The worker and aggregators are given flexibility to decide their contribution jointly. So the contributions can be made jointly by the aggregator and the worker, or solely by either party.

The CRA charges have been kept affordable, in line with the loss-cost structures of NPS Lite and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY). The PoP, which also charges an onboarding fee, are prohibited from charging it as long as the incentive framework is in place. As per the current notification, it is till March 31, 2027.

One of the other benefits of the model is the portability feature. A worker can open the account with one aggregator and later port it to another aggregator when switching jobs. They can also switch from the NPS e-Shramik model to the NPS Common Scheme model.

Notably, Zomato implemented the e-Shramik model for its workers in October 2025, following the PFRDA notification. As per a PTI report, its workers have built a collective NPS corpus of over Rs 1 crore with 200,000 permanent retirement numbers (PRANs) generated since its implementation by the aggregators last year.