Senior Citizen Savings Scheme mop-up spikes over two times, says report

Inflows into Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) have surged to over two times during the current fiscal. During the same time, mobilisation through the Monthly Income Scheme has risen up by four times, reported Business Line.

“As of early February, collection through SCSS was around ₹90,000 crore. It was over ₹37,000 crore during FY23. Similarly, collection from the Monthly Income Scheme rose to nearly ₹20,000 crore against ₹5,000 crore for FY23,” a senior Finance Ministry official said. 

Further, the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, launched during the current fiscal, has mopped up over ₹19,000 crore till date.

SCSS and MIS are two small savings schemes, available through post offices that enjoy sovereign guarantee for principal and interest. The official attributed enhancement of the limit as the reason for higher collection.

Limits raised

The maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme has been enhanced to ₹30 lakh from ₹15 lakh and it has been made effective from April 1, 2023. 

Similarly, under MIS, the maximum investment limit is ₹9 lakh in a single account and ₹15 lakh in a joint account. Earlier, the limits were ₹4.5 lakh and ₹9 lakh respectively.

Announced last year, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate provides financial advantages to women and encourages them to take charge of their finances and make informed decisions. The scheme is available for two years up to March 2025. This will offer a deposit facility up to ₹2 lakh in the name of women or girls for a tenor of two years at a fixed interest rate of 7.5 per cent with partial withdrawal option.

Talking about overall small saving collections, the official said that against the Revised Estimate target of net collection of ₹4.37-lakh crore, the amount mobilised till early February has been ₹2.76-lakh crore which is 64 per cent of RE. However, during the corresponding period (April-early February) of FY23, the amount was ₹1.91-lakh crore.

The small savings schemes basket comprises 12 instruments including the National Savings Certificate (NSC), Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme. The government resets the interest rate at the beginning of every quarter.