The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has launched Retirement Income Schemes (RIS) and drawdown facilities under the National Pension System (NPS), enabling subscribers to withdraw retirement funds in phases. According to reports from Mint, the regulator announced these guidelines on May 15, 2026, with the aim to provide subscribers with 'more flexible periodic payout options during their decumulation phase while continuing to support corpus appreciation through the retirement income schemes'. The drawdown options will be available to both government and non-government subscribers under NPS. As per the latest reports, this overhaul allows retirees to spread their NPS withdrawals across years up to age 85, helping protect against outliving their savings as Indian life expectancy rises.
The new framework offers two primary withdrawal methods for subscribers. The Systematic Payout Rate (SPR) serves as the default option, where the withdrawal amount is determined based on current age and withdrawal period until age 85. As reported by Mint, the formula follows 1 ÷ (85 minus your current age) = your annual payout rate. For example, at age 65, the payout rate would be 5% of corpus annually, while at age 70, it would be 6.67% of corpus annually. The Systematic Unit Redemption (SUR) option allows total units to be spread evenly over the entire drawdown tenure, with a fixed number of units redeemed monthly regardless of NAV changes. According to the latest reports, subscribers can now choose between systematic drawdown from the corpus or structured annuity-linked payouts, letting them mix flexibility with guaranteed income.
According to the PFRDA circular reported by Mint, these withdrawals shall have no impact on the mandatory annuitisation requirement of 20% or 40% of the corpus, ensuring that the minimum statutory requirement for life-long pension remains intact. The effective date for these guidelines will be announced once necessary technical systems and operational frameworks are in place. The initiative has been introduced under the authority granted by Section 14 of the PFRDA Act, 2013, and issued under the PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals under the NPS) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025.
As reported by Mint, according to latest PFRDA data, the NPS had more than 21.7 million subscribers and more than ₹16 trillion in assets under management as of March 2026. The new withdrawal framework represents a significant expansion of options for these subscribers, allowing them to access their retirement funds in a more flexible manner while maintaining the core principle of corpus preservation for long-term security. According to recent calculations, a ₹50 lakh NPS corpus earning 6% annuity equals ₹25,000/month - roughly 500 cups of chai every month for life. Subscribers can log into their NPS account on the CRA portal (cra-nsdl.com or KFintech) to check their current corpus size and estimate monthly payouts under the new drawdown options.
