National Savings Certificate: This is how you can transfer NSC

Part of the postal savings system, the National Savings Certificate or the NSC is a savings bond under the Government of India, mainly for the small to mid-income investors. Since the NSC is backed by the government, it is a safe and low risk product with an interest rate of 8%, in which one can invest and also save on income tax. One can approach their nearest post office to purchase this product, and comes with two different maturity periods: five and ten, for NSC variants NCS VIII and NSC IX respectively. Additionally, one can avail the tax benefits with Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. 

The investment made in the NSC is represented by certificates which bear the name(s) of the investor(s). If they wish to, the investor can transfer the said certificates to another person as well. To do this, one needs to follow certain steps to do so. 

To apply for the transfer of the certificate from one person to another one needs to fill form NC 34. With this form, the investor request for a duplicate of the certificate. One needs to download this form from the official website of Indian Postal services. 

The details of the person in whose name the certificate was initially issued have to be mentioned. The details include serial number, date of issue and denomination, name of the individual initiating the transfer and the reason behind the transfer. 
 
Signatures of the person transferring the certificate and the recipient is mandatory on the form. 

The postmaster of the post office where the certificate was issued to begin with will examine all the details and verify them. Post this, the form will be sent to the post office where the certificate is to be transferred for verification and completing the process. 

It is to be noted that the post master will only sanction the transfer under the following reasons, 

• From the name of a deceased holder to his or her heir.
• From a holder to a court of law or to any other person under the orders of a court of law.
• From a single holder to the names of joint holders of whom the transferee shall be one.
• From joint holders to the name of one of the joint holders.

Another important point that one needs to keep in mind is that in every case of transfer the name of previous holder shall be rounded with the name of new holder written under the dated signature of the authorized Postmaster along with his designation and date stamp of the post office. Also, the transfer of the certificate is only allowed from the date of the issue of the certificate to the date of the maturity period of the said certificate.