The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's (PFRDA) has proposed to allow over 16 lakh Central government employees who are members of the National Pension System (NPS) to have the flexibility in choosing their investment options and allocate at least 50 per cent, if not more, of their portfolio to equities. The move is part of the pension regulator's plan to harmonise the investment options for the NPS for Central government and private sector members. Under the current norms, Central government employees can allocate just 5-15 per cent of their portfolio to equities while the remainder is put in fixed-income securities such as government bonds and corporate paper. In contrast, private sector members could invest half their portfolio in equities; and the regulator proposes to hike it further to 75 per cent. "With the shift of burden of funding the retirement income resting on the employee, it is important to create a facilitating environment to enable him to plan his retirement judiciously through prudent investments based on his risk appetite," said the PFRDA in a concept paper, adding that it would "have a cascading impact on the development of the capital market, and the development of the economy as a whole". The NPS for Central government employees, which is mandatory for all entrants from January 1, 2004, has 16.57 lakh members and assets under management of over Rs 48,000 crore. "The proposal has been on the table for long and we have been discussing it with the Finance Ministry. "Now, public comments have been sought, based on which a concrete plan will be finalised in the next couple of months," said a government official.