In a late-night development, the Union Ministry of Finance issued a gazette notification to facilitate the availability of Mahila Samman Savings Certificates, 2023 in 1.59 lakh post offices with immediate effect.
The scheme was announced in the Budget 2023-24 by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to commemorate ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and is a significant step towards financial inclusion and empowerment of women, including girls.
The two-year tenure scheme offers an attractive and fixed interest of 7.5 per cent interest compounded quarterly with flexible investment and partial withdrawal options with a maximum ceiling of Rs two lakh. The scheme is valid for a two-year period up to 31 March 2025.
The National Savings (Monthly Income Account) Scheme, 2019 has been amended through the National Savings (Monthly Income Account) (Amendment) Scheme, 2023 and the maximum investment limit has been raised from Rs 4.5 lakh Rs nine lakhs for a single account and from Rs nine lakh to Rs 15 lakh for a joint account with effect from 1 April 2023.
Likewise, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, 2019 has been amended through the Senior Citizens Savings (Amendment) Scheme, 2023 and the maximum investment limit has been raised from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh with effect from Saturday.
Interest rates on all the small savings schemes, except Savings Deposit and PPF, have also been upwardly revised with effect from 1 April.
These measures are expected to immensely benefit the post office small savings customers and attract more investment in these schemes through post offices, especially in rural areas and amongst girls, women, farmers, artisans, senior citizens, factory workers, government employees, small traders and other sections of the society. They will get better returns on their investment in small savings schemes.