Quarterly Premium Plans for Atal Pension Yojana
Atal Pension Yojana – PM Modi’s flagship financial inclusion program – has gone through a number of amendments which have now made the program far more consumer-friendly compared to the initial iteration which was considered to be pro-government program. Let us take a quick look at the key difference between the former version and the current version of the scheme and find out why the new version is called pro-consumer version.
| Areas where changes have been made | Previous version conditions | Current version conditions |
| Premature exit | Was not allowed. Consumers had to pay until they reached the retirement age of 60 years. Only under conditions of premature death and critical illness or terminal illness premature exit was allowed. | Allows premature exit from the scheme. Account can be closed by formally applying to the bank. Money will be refunded after necessary deductions have been made. |
| Penalty for payment delay | There were different slabs. Minimum penalty was Re 1 and maximum penalty was Rs 10 per month in case of late payment of premiums. | Slab system has been removed. Now the penalty is Re 1 per month. This is the flat penalty amount that will be charged. |
| Account deactivation | Account was supposed to be deactivate and eventually closed after a certain period of time in case of non-payment of premiums. | Account will not be deactivated or closed until, the account balance becomes zero after continued deduction of account maintenance charges and other associated fees. |
| Premium payment method | Only monthly payment was allowed. No other payment option was available. The premiums were to be auto-debited from the liked savings bank account. | Subscribers for this scheme are now allowed to select whether they want to pay the premiums every month or every quarter or every 6 months. |
Of course, these new changes are pro-consumer. These new changes have increased the Atal Pension Yojana subscriptions many folds in comparison to previous iteration.
Now, coming to premium payment mode, here is one question that everyone has been asking: “Are there separate premium plans for quarterly payment mode?”
The answer to this question is ‘NO’. Nothing else has changed. The amount you need to pay will depend on your age at which you are subscribing for the scheme and the amount of pension you want to withdraw at the end of the maturity period, subject to the five different pension slabs as mentioned by the government. You can select any of the five pension slabs:
- You can select to withdraw a pension of Rs 1000 per month.
- You can select to withdraw a pension of Rs 2000 per month.
- You can select to withdraw a pension of Rs 3000 per month.
- You can select to withdraw a pension of Rs 4000 per month.
- You can select to withdraw a pension of Rs 5000 per month.
The minimum age at which you can enter this scheme is 18 and the maximum age at which you can purchase the scheme is 40 years.
Assuming that you go for a monthly pension slab of 1000 rupees and you purchased the scheme at the age of 30, the monthly premium you need to pay is 116 rupees. So, now instead of opting for monthly premium, if you wish to go for quarterly premium, you need to pay 116×3 = 348 at once. There will be no reduction in premium payment for bulk payments.
So, in case you are willing to go for quarterly premiums for your Atal Pension Yojana Account, you need to follow the following tables:
Pension Slab: 1000 per month
| Entry Age | Number of Years of Contribution | Monthly Premium | Quarterly premium | Monthly Pension |
| 18 | 42 | 42 | 126 | 1000 |
| 20 | 40 | 50 | 150 | |
| 25 | 35 | 76 | 228 | |
| 30 | 30 | 116 | 348 | |
| 35 | 25 | 181 | 543 | |
| 40 | 20 | 291 | 873 |
Pension Slab: 2000 per month
| Entry Age | Number of Years of Contribution | Monthly Premium | Quarterly premium | Monthly Pension |
| 18 | 42 | 84 | 252 | 2000 |
| 20 | 40 | 100 | 300 | |
| 25 | 35 | 151 | 453 | |
| 30 | 30 | 231 | 693 | |
| 35 | 25 | 362 | 1086 | |
| 40 | 20 | 582 | 1746 |
Pension Slab: 3000 per month
| Entry Age | Number of Years of Contribution | Monthly Premium | Quarterly premium | Monthly Pension |
| 18 | 42 | 126 | 378 | 3000 |
| 20 | 40 | 150 | 450 | |
| 25 | 35 | 226 | 678 | |
| 30 | 30 | 347 | 1041 | |
| 35 | 25 | 543 | 1629 | |
| 40 | 20 | 873 | 2619 |
Pension Slab: 4000 per month
| Entry Age | Number of Years of Contribution | Monthly Premium | Quarterly premium | Monthly Pension |
| 18 | 42 | 168 | 504 | 4000 |
| 20 | 40 | 198 | 594 | |
| 25 | 35 | 301 | 903 | |
| 30 | 30 | 462 | 1386 | |
| 35 | 25 | 722 | 2166 | |
| 40 | 20 | 1164 | 3492 |
Pension Slab: 5000 per month
| Entry Age | Number of Years of Contribution | Monthly Premium | Quarterly premium | Monthly Pension |
| 18 | 42 | 210 | 630 | 5000 |
| 20 | 40 | 248 | 744 | |
| 25 | 35 | 376 | 1128 | |
| 30 | 30 | 577 | 1731 | |
| 35 | 25 | 902 | 2706 | |
| 40 | 20 | 1454 | 4362 |
So, in case you are looking for quarterly premium, all you have to do is pay thrice the amount of monthly payment every 3 months for 4 times in a given year.