Forget Fixed Deposits! These Post office schemes offer up to 8.6% interest

Two of the Post Office small savings schemes are currently offering up to 8.6 per cent interest rate. Five-year Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) and Sukanaya Samridhi Yojana (SSY) are two such schemes offered by post offices that can fetch you handsome returns of up to 8.6% in a year. The current interest rate on SCSS and SSY schemes for this quarter starting from July 1, 2019, are 8.6%  and 8.4% respectively. 

After the recent reduction in interest rates by the government, the new interest rate on five-year Senior Citizen Saving Scheme and Sukanaya Samridhi Yojana are 8.6% and 8.4% per annum compounded annually respectively. 

Here are the key things about these two post office schemes, you must know:

1. If you want to open SCSS account with India Post, you need to deposit a minimum of Rs 1,000 and a maximum of Rs 15 lakh. The maturity period of this account is five years. A person can operate more than one account in an individual capacity or jointly with a spouse. 

2. The account can be opened with a cash deposit of less than Rs 1 lakh and via cheque payments, it can be started with Rs 1 lakh and above. Also, all individuals above 60 years of age or older are eligible to open an SCSS account.

3. The facility of enrollment is available at the time of opening and closure of accounts. The account can be closed after one year with a deduction of the deposit amount is equal to 1.5 per cent. 

4. Sukanaya Samridhi Yojana account comes in the EEE (Exempt, Exempt, Exempt) tax category, which means that the person receives a tax deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh on investments made under this scheme. The interest earned during the lock-in period is also exempted from taxes.