This year Government of India has introduced a new deposit Scheme ‘Sukanya Samriddhi’ exclusively for a girl child upto 10 years of age for providing education, marriage expenses and wealth creation with exclusive tax benefits and high tax free interest rate of 9.2% which is equivalent to pre-tax 14% if one is falling in the tax bracket of 30%.
The Scheme has triple tax benefits:-
i) Contribution to this account is deductible from taxable income under section 80 C of I-T Act upto maximum of Rs 1.50 lakh.
ii) Compounded interest on the deposit is completely free from tax.
iii) Withdrawal of deposits along with interest is not chargeable to tax.
Either of the parents or legal guardian of a girl child upto the age of 10 years from the date of birth can open this account in the name of the girl child in any Post Office or branches of 18 authorized commercial banks. Depositor can open only a single account in the name of a girl child and is limited to two girl child of parents.
The account can be opened with minimum deposit of Rs 1000 along with birth certificate of girl child, address proof, identity proof and two photographs of the parent/ guardian.
The scheme gets matured on completion of 21 years from the date of opening of the account or when the girl child gets married, whichever is earlier.
Under the scheme, you are required to deposit a minimum of Rs 1000 and maximum of Rs 1,50,000 in a year for the first fourteen years, after which you are not required to deposit any amount. This account will keep earning the applicable interest for the remaining seven years at compounded rate or till it gets matured on your daughter’s marriage.
Interest would be paid even after the maturity of the account if it is not closed by the account holder. Deposits can be made any number of times during the year and account can be transferred anywhere in India.
The interest rate for the current financial year is 9.2% and is subject to revision every year in the month of March. You can build sizeable corpus with interest, compounding for welfare of the child depending on annual contribution. Assuming interest rate continues at 9.2%, monthly contribution of Rs 1000 for 14 years will have maturity amount of approx Rs 6.34 lakh and annual contribution of Rs 1,50,000 for 14 years will result in over Rs 80 lakh at the end of 21 years. This is excluding tax benefits.
To meet the financial requirements of the account holder for the purpose higher education and marriage withdrawal of up to fifty percent of the balance at the credit, at the end of preceding financial year is allowed but such withdrawal is allowed only when the account holder girl child attains the age of eighteen years. Premature closure is allowed only in the cases of extreme compassionate grounds such as medical support in life- threatening diseases, death etc.
If there is a girl child of less than 10 years in the family, this is the best gift you can make to secure her future. Grand parents can support through parents of the girl child.
