The government will soon start selection process for a new chairman of pension fund regulator PFRDA to succeed the present chief, Hemant G Contractor, whose term is slated to end in April. "The Finance Ministry will soon come out with an advertisement to find a successor to head the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)," sources told . 

Contractor's term will be completed on April 30, 2019. 

PFRDA was re-constituted into a statutory body after notification of PFRDA Act in 2014. 

Contactor is the first Chairman to head the regulatory body. He had joined PFRDA on October 7, 2014. 

As per the Act, the chairman will have a tenure of 5 years or till age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. 

Contractor was previously held the post of SBI managing director before being appointed as the PFRDA Chairman. 

The pension fund regulator has reached a subscriber base of 2.65 crore in its flagship National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) schemes and hopes to cover nearly 2.72 crore subscribers by the end of the current financial year. 

The APY, mainly targeting the unorganised sector employees, offers five slabs of pension from Rs 1,000-5,000 per month upon retirement. Employees in the age bracket of 18-40 years can sign up for an APY account. 

NPS is a voluntary defined contribution retirement savings scheme for government employees as well as for those working in the organised and unorganised sectors. #casansaar (Source - PTI, Economic Times)