National Pension System annuity purchase options: Annuity for life with Return of Premium (ROP) seems to be the most popular annuity plan purchased by National Pension System (NPS) subscribers at the time of superannuation or exit, according to official data.
There are seven common annuity options available to subscribers at the time of exit – Annuity for life (Option A), Annuity for Life with ROP (Option B), Joint Life Annuity (Option C), Joint Life Annuity with ROP (Option D), NPS – Family Income Option ((Option E), Life Annuity with Return of Premium/Purchase Price in Parts (Option F)and Life Annuity with Return/Purchase Price on diagnosis of Critical Illness (Option G).
PFRDA’s financial year-wise data on annuity plans opted for by NPS subscribers shows that most of the subscribers opted for annuity for life with ROP since 2013.
In 2021-22, as many as 17,377 subscribers opted for Option B while in 2020-21, 22,100 subscribers went for this option at the time of exit. In these two years, subscribers opting for Option A were 792 and 499 respectively.
Annuity plan opted at the time of Superannuation/ Exit
| Financial Year | Option A | Option B | Option C | Option D | Option E | Option F | Option G | Others | Total |
| 2012-13 | 17 | 84 | 4 | 18 | – | – | – | – | 123 |
| 2013-14 | 29 | 363 | 7 | 78 | – | – | 4 | 4 | 485 |
| 2014-15 | 55 | 1,378 | 19 | 145 | – | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1,608 |
| 2015-16 | 97 | 2,131 | 26 | 750 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 3,022 |
| 2016-17 | 145 | 3,579 | 61 | 917 | 40 | 3 | 23 | 8 | 4,776 |
| 2017-18 | 399 | 7,352 | 322 | 1,350 | 35 | 4 | 234 | 5 | 9,701 |
| 2018-19 | 499 | 8,305 | 295 | 2,698 | 108 | 16 | 444 | 5 | 12,370 |
| 2019-20 | 431 | 12,478 | 617 | 3,242 | 1,006 | 7 | 231 | 3 | 18,015 |
| 2020-21 | 499 | 22,100 | 986 | 2,234 | 4,361 | 6 | 444 | 7 | 30,637 |
| 2021-22 | 792 | 17,377 | 1,150 | 3,764 | 2,669 | 20 | 397 | 2 | 26,171 |
| 2022-23 | 187 | 1,417 | 223 | 491 | 110 | 8 | – | – | 2,436 |
After Option B, the next popular choice of subscribers in 2021-22 and 2020-21 was Option D and Option E. As many as 4361 subscribers opted for Option E in 2020-21 while the number of subscribers going for this option in 2021-22 was 2669.
Also Read: National Pension System: Pros and some cons of NPS
For Option D, there were 2234 subscribers in 2020-21 and 3764 in 2021-22.
In 2022-23, the number of subscribers opting for Option B, D and E was 1417, 491 and 110 respectively.
Since 2013, over 76,000 subscribers have gone for Option B, while more than 15,600 subscribers have opted for Option D. Over 8000 subscribers have opted for Option E since 2015-16 while just 3150 subscribers have opted for Option A on exit since 2013.
The number of subscribers going for Option C since 2013 was just 3710.
NPS is considered one of the best investment/saving options for retirement planning. The scheme is regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and provides several investment options during the accumulation phase. Calculation basis past returns of various pension fund managers shows that subscribers can accumulate a healthy retirement corpus by investing some amount every month in their respective NPS accounts.