SMALL SAVINGS SCHEME AT A GLANCE

SMALL SAVINGS SCHEME AT A GLANCE

Sl. No	Name of the Scheme	Rate of Interest	Maturity Period	Minimum Deposit	Other Facilities.
1.	Post Office Savings Bank Account	3.5 % Per Annum		Minimum       Rs.50/  SB cheque account min dep is Rs500/ Maximum Limit Individual – Rs. 1Lakhs Jointly –      Rs.2 Lakhs	Cheque facility available Interest exempt from Income Tax.
2.	Recurring Deposit Account	Rs.10/- account fetches Rs.728.90 on maturity	5 years account can be continued for another 5yr term.	Rs.10/- or Multiple Rs. 5/-	Insurance benefit covered up to Rs.50/- denomination. Premature encashment  available after 3 years.
3.	Term Deposit 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year   5 Year	6.25 % 6.50% 7.25 % 7.50 %		Rs.200/-  and multiple by 200 only Maximum- no limit	Interest payable annually.  But calculated quarterly.
4.	Public Provident fund account	8 % per annum compounded quarterly.	15 years	Minimum Rs.500/- Maximum Rs.70,000/- In a financial year	Interest exempted from Income Tax. Withdrawal  is permissible from 7thFinancial Year.
5.	Post Office Monthly income Scheme	8 % per annum Interest payable monthly	6th years	Minimum Rs.1,500/- Maximum limit- Individual Rs.4.5 Lakhs Jointly      Rs.9 Lakhs	After Completion of 6 years 10 % Bonus also payable on maturity value.
6.	Kisan Vikah Patra	Money double in 8 years 7 month	8 years 7 months	Rs.100/- Maximum- no Limit	Pre mature facility payable after completion of 2 and half  years.
7.	National  Savings CertificatesVIII issue	8 % per annum interest compounded half  yearly	6 years	Rs.100 Maximum- no Limit	Income rebate available under section 80 L & 88 Premature facility available after completion of 3 years.
8.	Senior Citizen Savings Scheme	9 % per annum payable quarterly	5 years	Rs.1,000/- or Multiple thereof . Maximum- 15 Lakhs.	Account can be opened in SBI or selected Nationalized Bank or Post Office.

• Nomination and transferred facilities are available in all schemes.

India Post launches mobile Money Transfer service

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 1: 

The Department of Posts (DoP) has launched the mobile-based money transfer service by Post Offices for quicker transfer of money from one city to another.

Launching the service, the Union Minister of State for Communications, Information Technology and Home, Mr Gurudas Kamat, said the aim of launching this service was to help those who were unable to avail banking services. The service will be operated by DoP with technological support from BSNL.

He said to begin with, the service has been launched between Punjab and Bihar Postal Circles for transfer of money up to Rs 50,000. The complete roll-out throughout the country would be completed in eight weeks, he added.

The Minister launched the service by remitting Rs 1,000 to Help Age India at Patna.

Mr Kamat said persons intending to use the service would have to go to the Post Office which will provide them a unique PIN code after the transfer of money.

The sender would have to send the PIN to the recipient through a text message who would be home delivered the money after verification of the PIN on his mobile. The recipient could also go to the Post Office and collect the money, he said.

Mr Kamat said India Post is the largest service network for transfer of money and annually about nine crore money orders are being sent on the postal network.

He said that to speed up the money transfer service, the DoP had introduced Electronic MO and Internet MO and that the mobile MO was the third such service.

The Secretary of Posts, Ms Radhika Doraiswamy, said that the DoP also proposes to interconnect all the 1, 55,000 Post Offices in the country to subsequently introduce Core Postal Service.

She said the department would also introduce the PO Savings Bank for which the mandatory clearances were being sought.

Referring to the high cost of sending money through MO, she said: “We need to reduce the Commission charges. We should be able to do this soon.’’

The charges for mobile money transfer will be the same as it is on the traditional money order — five per cent of the remitted amount, a department spokesman said.

The Director of BSNL, Mr R.K. Aggarwal, said that the BSNL-PO joint venture will help the rural customers in availing of money transfer services. This will also revolutionise the financial inclusion programme of the government.

He said in 1947 the tele-density in the country was 0.47 per cent which increased to 4.7 per cent in 1997 in fifty years. But after that within 14 years, the tele-density has now reached 70 per cent.

The total number of mobile connections at present is 850 million and 15 million new connections are being activated in the country every month, he said.

Source : Hindu