Introduced as part of the government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign, the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is one of the small savings programmes that provides people with guaranteed returns on their deposits. This scheme has a 15-year investment period and a 21-year maturity duration. It offers higher returns than the majority of other modest savings schemes and is entirely risk-free because it is supported by the government.
The Centre kept the interest rate unchanged at 7.6 per cent for October-December 2022, despite the fact that the interest rate on the programme is reviewed on a quarterly basis. At the conclusion of each financial year, interest is credited to the account and is exempt from tax under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act of 1961. The same section also excludes the deposit sum.
The guardian can open a Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account in the name of a girl child who is younger than 10 years old on the day of opening the account. The girl will hold the account once she becomes 18 years old. A family can open this account for a total of two girls. In the cases of twins or triplets, more than two accounts can be opened by those families.
An initial investment of Rs 250 is required to start an SSY account. The depositor can then make deposits in multiples of Rs 50 for a minimum of Rs 250 and a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh every financial year. The deposit can be made either monthly or in one big sum. However, there will be a penalty of Rs 50 and the account will be deemed as “defaulted” if the minimum amount is not maintained. The defaulted account may be revived if it was opened less than 15 years ago, by making a minimum payment of Rs 250 plus Rs 50 default for each defaulted year. An important benefit of the SSY programme is that an account can be opened and transferred to another bank branch or post office quite easily.
