Income Tax benefits from Post Office Saving Schemes Interest rates on these post office saving schemes move in line with the government’s interest rates on small savings schemes.India Post or Department of Posts, which runs the postal network of the country, offers a number of saving schemes with income tax benefits. Using these saving schemes, investor can claim a deduction up to Rs. 1.5 lakh in a financial year from taxable income under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Interest rates on these post office saving schemes move in line with the government’s interest rates on small savings schemes, which are revised on a quarterly basis. Here are post office saving schemes that offer tax benefits: Post Office Time Deposit (TD) or Fixed Deposit (FD) account In a post office fixed deposit (FD), one can deposit a lump sum of money for a specific period and avail of features like guaranteed returns and choice of interest payout. Post office time deposit (TD) or Fixed Deposit (F...

Government Hikes GPF Interest Rate To 8% For October-December quarter. The government has increased the rate of interest for General Provident Fund (GPF) and other related schemes by 0.4 percentage points to 8 per cent for the October-December quarter. The rate is in line with that for Public Provident Fund. The interest rate on GPF was 7.6 per cent for the July-September quarter of 2018-19. “… during the year 2018-2019, accumulations at the credit of subscribers to the General Provident Fund and other similar funds shall carry interest at the rate of 8 per cent with effect from October 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018,” a Department of Economic Affairs’ notification said. The interest rate would apply on Provident Funds of central government employees, railways and defence forces. Last month, the government announced that the interest on small savings, including NSC and PPF, will be hiked by up to 0.4 percentage point for the October-December quarter, to align it with rising...

Ministry of Finance Public Provident Fund (PPF) account 09 MAR 2018 At present, premature closure of a Public Provident Fund (PPF) account is permitted on specified grounds on completion of five financial years from the date of opening of account. Opening of accounts in the name of a minor is permitted under all the small savings scheme except the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme. There are some ambiguities due to multiple Acts and rules for small savings schemes and the same are as under:     i. Certain provisions are not uniform in the existing three Acts.     ii. Some provisions have become redundant with time, which have been proposed to be deleted, with a view to simplify and avoid confusion.     iii. Some provisions are not clearly defined in existing Acts, leading to legal issues. The Government proposed to merge Government Savings Certificates Act, 1959 and Public Provident Fund Act, 1968 with the Government Savings Banks Act, 1873. The...