Small Savings Schemes: West Bengal becomes the highest contributor

April 5, 2021

The National Savings Institute operating under the Ministry of Finance recently announced that West Bengal is the top contributor to the Small Savings Scheme in the country. The state contributes 15% of the total corpus. It has so far collected Rs 90,000 crores under the Small Savings Scheme.

Top performers of Small Savings Scheme

West Bengal was followed by Uttar Pradesh with a contribution of 15.09%. The state of Uttar Pradesh has collected Rs 69,660 crores.
Maharashtra was ranked third. The state of Maharashtra contributed 10.57%, which is Rs 63,026 crores.
Gujarat was ranked fourth. Gujarat contributed 8.16%, that is Rs 48,645 crores.
Tamil Nadu ranked fifth contributing 4.8%, which is Rs 28,598.

Recent Developments of Small Savings Schemes

The Small Savings Schemes attracted deposits of Rs 6 lakh crores in 2017-18.
The Government of India recently announced that the interest rates of Small Savings Schemes are being lowered. The interest rates of Public Provident Funds are lowered from 7.1% to 6.4$. The interest rates of National Savings Certificate are lowered from 6.8% to 5.9%. The interest rates of Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is to be lowered from 4% to 3.5%.

What are Small Savings Schemes?

The Small Savings Schemes consist of twelve instruments. The major Small Savings Schemes are as follows:

National Savings Certificate
Public Provident Fund
Kisan Vikas Patra
Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme

National Savings Certificate

It is a fixed income investment that can be opened at any post office. It helps small to mid income investors to invest while saving on income tax. There is no maximum limit on purchase of National Savings Certificate. However, according to Section 80 of Income Tax Act, only investments up to Rs 1.5 lakhs can bring tax breaks.

Public Provident Funds

The Public Provident Fund was introduced in India in 1968. The main objective of Public Provident Funds is to mobilize small saving in the form of investment. Basically, Public Provident Funds is a long-term investment. The interests earned under the scheme are not taxable.