The Ministry of Finance has notified that the persons who were or currently paying income tax shall not be eligible to join the Atal Pension Yojana launched by the central government to provide financial aid to senior citizens. The new amendment shall be applicable with effect from 1st October 2022.
The notification issued on Wednesday stated that “Provided that from 1st October 2022, any citizen who is or has been an income-tax payer, shall not be eligible to join APY.”
The notification further provided that “for the purpose of this clause, the expression “income-tax payer” shall mean a person who is liable to pay income-tax in accordance with the Income Tax Act, 1961, as amended from time to time.”
Atal Pension Yojana, formerly known as Swavalamban Yojana is a government-backed pension scheme in India, primarily targeted at the unorganised sector. It was mentioned in the year 2015 Budget speech by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May 2015 in Kolkata.
The Ministry further amended the said notification, at the end of para 13, to include “In case a subscriber, who joined on or after 1st October, 2022, is subsequently found to have been an income-tax payer on or before the date of application, the APY account shall be closed and the accumulated pension wealth till date would be given to the subscriber.”.
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