'With Us, There's Due Diligence'

The PFRDA bill hasn't been cleared by Parliament...

The government has made us a functioning authority. We are autonomous under the finance ministry, and statutory backing would give us the power to levy penalties and take action against errant fund managers. However, today I am managing the same people through individual contracts. PFRDA may not have direct powers to penalise, and we are not guaranteed by the government of India, but people are aware that there is more due diligence (for their investments) with us. I don't think there'll be any lack of confidence.

The taxability of the corpus on retirement looks like a disincentive.

There is an issue there, but the government is treating pensions as savings, not as an investment instrument. They do not want to encourage people to spend this money; they want people to invest it, or most of it, in an annuity. Then, it will not be taxed.