No Change In Interest Rates On Small Savings Schemes For April-June Quarter

There will be no change in the interest rates of your post office savings, senior citizens saving schemes (SCSS) and public provident fund (PPF) for the new quarter beginning April 1, 2024.

The government revises small savings schemes interest rates every quarter. For the first quarter of fiscal FY25, April-June 2024, the government has kept the interest rates of post office schemes unchanged at the rates prevailing during the previous January-March, 2024 quarter.

"The rates of interest on various Small Savings Schemes for the first quarter of FY 2024-25 starting from April 1, 2024 and ending on June 30, 2024 shall remain unchanged from those notified for the fourth quarter (January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024) of FY 2023-24," stated an office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Finance."

The Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) are some of the popular small savings schemes.

The rate of interest in the Post Office Saving Account has been left at 4 percent compounded annually, while for the PPF it is at 7.1 percent. Senior Citizen Saving Scheme interest is at 8.3 percent (paid quarterly), while for the Sukanya Samridhi Account, it has been kept at 8.2 percent.

The National Saving Certificate interest is 7.7 percent. The rate of interest in the Kisan Vikas Patra scheme is kept at 7.5 percent and for the Mahila Samman Saving Certificate also at 7.5 percent.

The government evaluates the interest rates of small savings plans periodically. The mechanism for calculating these prices was proposed by the Shyamala Gopinath Committee. According to the committee's recommendations, interest rates for various schemes should be 25 to 100 basis points higher than the yields on government bonds with the same maturities.

Last time the government raised the interest rates on a few post office small savings plans for the quarter ending December 31, 2023. All schemes have kept their interest rates, with the exception of the recurring deposit rate. The Public Provident Fund (PPF) interest rate remained constant at 7.1%.

Few of the small savings schemes come with tax benefits. As per Section 80C of the Income-tax Act of 1961, post office schemes that get tax benefits are NSC, SCSS, SSY, and PPF.

The schemes that do not come with section 80C benefit are: Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), Post Office Time deposits (except 5-year tenure), Post Office Monthly Income Scheme, Mahila Samaan Savings Scheme and Post Office Recurring Deposits.

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