In a bid to popularise the New Pension Scheme (NPS) amongst private citizens, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is planning to set up an NPS Information Desk. The information desk would have an all India toll free number and would be manned by a call centre, which would provide infrastructure including call executives to field queries on the NPS.
?It is important to make the common citizens aware of the benefits of NPS. Besides advertising NPS products on television, radio and print media, PFRDA wants that there should be an interactive facility available to the general public from where they can have any information on NPS and its benefits,? the interim regulator has said in its request for proposal (RFP).
Interestingly, given the low level of awareness about the NPS, the information desk will have a modest start. It will be manned by just three executives along with a team leader, although the RFP has made a provision of two additional executives that can be deployed later on. ?The PFRDA feels that the present volume of calls may not need more than three call-executives to be stationed at the Information Desk,? it said.
The PFRDA?s decision to start an NPS Information Desk comes after six months since the scheme was opened to private individuals. Only 2,300 subscribers have joined in till now. To increase awareness about the scheme, the regulator is also planning kick of a Rs 10 crore ad campaign this month.
Apart from working as a centralised information desk on NPS, the interim regulator is hopeful that the facility will also help in generating new subscribers for NPS by gathering information of the callers and passing it on to the NSDL, which is central record keeping agency of the scheme.
The information desk is expected to be launched by February next year. Once the call centre operator is appointed, the PFRDA would train the executives about the NPS and then would conduct a test run.
The interim regulator would bear the call charges of the toll free number and the outgoing telephone numbers if any calls and would also train the call centre executives about all aspects of the NPS.