The government has recently relaxed the rules for various small savings schemes. The schemes for which the rules have been changed include Public Provident Fund (PPF), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme etc. Decisions related to changes in Small Savings Scheme are taken by the Economic Affairs Department of the Finance Ministry.
The government has recently relaxed the rules for various small savings schemes. The schemes for which changes have been made in the rules include Public Provident Fund (PPF), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme etc. Decisions related to changes in the Small Savings Scheme are taken by the Economic Affairs Department of the Finance Ministry. At present, the government runs 9 types of small savings schemes, which include Recurring Deposit (RD), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), Mahila Samman Saving Certificate, Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificate (NSC) and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme.
What has changed?
Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS)
According to the new rules of the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme, a person can open an account under this scheme within 3 months of receiving the retirement benefit, whereas earlier this deadline was one month. According to the notification, interest on accounts opened under the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme will be calculated on the basis of the applicable scheme rate.
Public Provident Fund (PPF)
In the new notification, changes have been made related to premature closure of PPF accounts. These changes have been made in the notification under the Public Provident Fund (Amendment) Scheme. In this, changes have been made mainly regarding the rules related to premature withdrawal under the National Savings Deposit Scheme.
Post Office Savings Account
In the notification related to Post Office Savings Account, it has been said that if the amount deposited for five years is withdrawn even after 4 years, then interest will be given on it at the current applicable rates of Post Office Savings Account. Under the current rules, if the amount deposited for 5 years is withdrawn after four years, the interest will be calculated at the rate applicable to three-year deposits.
