The government has further extended the various relaxations with respect to small savings schemes. The relaxations have been extended to July 31, 2020 due to ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic situation in the country.
As per an order issued by the Department of Posts on July 3, 2020, here is a look at the relaxations in rules regarding various small savings schemes.
Recurring deposits: Post office recurring deposit (RD) account holders can deposit the instalments for the months of March, April, May and June, 2020 in their RD account till July 31, 2020 without paying any revival fee. Further, these RD holders will not have to pay default fees.
Usually, in case of non-deposit into an RD account, a default fee/revival fee is charged. Those RD account subscribers who used to avail the rebate benefit by depositing advance payments in their RD Accounts can deposit till July 31, 2020 to avail the benefit. As per the order, "The rebate admissible as per the scheme provision will be available at the time of deposit of advance installments."
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: Relaxation has been further provided with regards to opening of Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) accounts. As per the order, if a girl child has attained the age of 10 years during the period between March 25, 2020 and June 30, 2020, i.e., the lockdown period, then the scheme account for such a girl child can be opened till July 31, 2020.
As per the SSY scheme rules, the account can be opened for a girl child aged up to 10 years of age.
PPF and SCSS: Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme(SCSS) account holders who want to extend their accounts can do so by sending an email from their registered email IDs before July 31, 2020. The original copy of the same shall be submitted to the concerned branch once the lockdown has been completely lifted.
Once the PPF account has completed 15 years, the account can be further extended for a block of five years with or without any further contribution. Similarly, once the SCSS account has matured after five years, the account can be further extended for a period of three years.
As the government has extended the tax-saving deadline for FY 2019-20 from June 30, 2020 to July 31, 2020, PPF and SSY account holders can make single deposits subject to the condition of maximum deposit ceiling prescribed under the scheme rules.
As per the scheme rules, a PPF/SSY account holder can deposit maximum Rs 1.5 lakh in a single financial year.