New Delhi, (IANS) The subscriber base of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) that aims at old age income security for the working poor from mostly the unorganised sector has reached 53 lakh, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

Over 230 banks and the Department of India Post have been involved in the implementation of the government's flagship social security scheme that focuses on encouraging and enabling the subscribers to save for their retirement.

"Besides the branches of the banks and core banking solutions-enabled offices of India Post, quite a few banks are sourcing subscribers through their internet banking portals in a paperless environment," the Ministry said here in a statement.

The APY scheme follows the same investment pattern as applicable to the National Pension System (NPS) contribution of central government employees.

During the year 2016-17, APY earned a return of 13.91 per cent.

With a view to empower the APY subscribers, new functionalities have been developed where a subscriber can view and print the ePRAN (Permanent Retirement Account Number) card and statement of transactions.

Further, the subscriber can register complaints/ grievance by providing his/ her PRAN details on https://npslite-nsdl.com/CRAlite/grievanceSub.do.

Presently males account for 62 per cent of the subscribers and females for about 38 per cent.

Most of the subscribers have opted for monthly contribution -- about 97.5 per cent of the subscribers are contributing at monthly intervals, about 0.8 per cent at quarterly intervals and about 1.7 per cent at half yearly intervals.

"A majority of the subscribers have opted for a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. Presently 51.5 per cent subscribers have opted for a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 and 34.5 per cent of the subscribers have opted for a monthly pension of Rs 5,000," it said.

The Atal Pension Yojana became operational from June 1, 2015 and is available to all the citizens of India in the age group of 18-40 years.

Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month, depending upon his contribution, from the age of 60 years.

The same pension would be paid to the spouse of the subscriber and on the demise of both the subscriber and the spouse, the accumulated pension wealth is returned to the nominee.