Post Office Senior Citizen Savings Scheme: This scheme of the post office not only provides more than 8% interest, but also ensures regular income every month. The government itself guarantees security of investment.
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme: Everyone wants to save some amount of their hard-earned money and invest it in a place where their money is safe and they get great returns. At the same time, some people start investing thinking that they will have a regular income in their old age so that they do not have to face financial problems. In these cases, various saving schemes run by the post office are becoming quite popular. One of these is the Post Office Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (Post Office SCSS Scheme), which is especially for senior citizens and in this, an annual interest of more than 8 percent is being given on investment, that is, more than bank FD.
Great interest of 8.2 percent
Small savings schemes are being run in different categories for every age group in the Post Office, in which the government itself guarantees safe investment. Talking about the Post Office Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, not only does it give more interest than FDs in all the banks, but it also ensures regular income and by investing in it, one can earn up to Rs 20,000 per month. Talking about the interest rate available in POSSC, the government is offering a great interest rate of 8.2 percent to those who invest in it from January 1, 2024.
Start investing with just Rs 1000
Post Office Senior Citizen Savings Scheme is also included in the list of most favorite schemes of the post office in terms of regular income, safe investment and tax exemption. By opening an account in it, you can start investing with a minimum of Rs 1,000. At the same time, the maximum investment limit in this Senior Citizens Savings Scheme has been fixed at Rs 30 lakh. This post office scheme can prove to be very helpful in staying financially prosperous after retirement. In this, a joint account can be opened with any person of 60 years of age or above or with spouse.
Maturity period of the scheme is 5 years
The investor in the Post Office Senior Citizen Scheme has to invest for 5 years. On the other hand, if this account is closed before this period, then according to the rules, the account holder has to pay a penalty. You can easily open your SCSS account by going to any nearest post office. Under this scheme, relaxation in age limit has also been given in some cases. For example, the age of a person taking VRS can be more than 55 years and less than 60 years at the time of opening the account, while retired employees from defense can invest at the age of more than 50 years and less than 60 years, however, some conditions have also been imposed for this.
Higher returns than bank FD
While on one hand 8.2 percent interest is being offered on the Post Office Senior Citizen Saving Scheme, on the other hand, all the banks of the country are offering only 7.00 to 7.75 percent interest to senior citizens on making FD for the same period i.e. 5 years. If we look at the FD rates of banks, the country’s largest bank SBI is giving 7.50 percent annual interest to senior citizens on five-year FD, ICICI Bank is giving 7.50 percent, Punjab National Bank (PNB) is giving 7 percent and HDFC Bank is giving 7.50 percent.
Tax benefits up to Rs 1.5 lakh
In this scheme of post office, the account holder also gets the benefit of tax exemption. A person investing in SCSS is given an annual tax exemption of up to Rs 1.5 lakh under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. There is a provision to pay the interest amount every three months in this scheme. In this, interest is paid on the first date of every April, July, October and January. If the account holder dies before the maturity period is over, then the account is closed and all its amount is handed over to the nominee recorded in the documents.
This is how you will get an income of Rs 20,000 per month
As mentioned above, in this government scheme, an investor can start investing just Rs 1000 and a maximum of Rs 30 lakh can be invested in it. The deposit amount is fixed in multiples of 1000. Now if we look at the calculation of earning Rs 20,000 regularly from this scheme, then at the rate of 8.2 percent interest, if a person invests about Rs 30 lakh, then he will get an annual interest of Rs 2.46 lakh and if we calculate this interest on a monthly basis, it comes to about Rs 20,000 per month.
