National Savings Certificates (India)

Last updated

Both sides of 1953 50R Post Office National Savings Certificate. India 1953 50R Post Office National Savings Certificate front and back.jpg
Both sides of 1953 50R Post Office National Savings Certificate.

National Savings Certificates, popularly known as NSC, is an Indian Government savings bond, primarily used for small savings and income tax saving investments in India. It is part of the postal savings system of India Post.

Contents

These can be purchased from any Post Office in India by an adult (either in his/her own name or on behalf of a minor), a minor, a trust, and two adults jointly. These are issued for five and ten year maturity and can be pledged to banks as collateral for availing loans. The holder gets the tax benefit under Section 80C of Income Tax Act, 1961. [1] [2]

Other similar government savings schemes in India include: Public Provident Fund (PPF), Post Office Fixed Deposit, Post Office Recurring Deposit, etc. [3] The certificates were heavily promoted by the Indian government in the 1950s after India's independence, to collect funds for nation-building

Discontinuation of Physical Certificate

As of April 2016, Ministry of Finance enabled purchasing and redeeming of these bonds in electronic form and financial institutions no longer issue a physical pre-printed certificate. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security (finance)</span> Tradable financial asset

A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any form of financial instrument, even though the underlying legal and regulatory regime may not have such a broad definition. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equities and fixed income instruments. In some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e.g., equity warrants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saving</span> Income which is not immediately spent or otherwise used for consumption

Saving is income not spent, or deferred consumption. Methods of saving include putting money aside in, for example, a deposit account, a pension account, an investment fund, or as cash. Saving also involves reducing expenditures, such as recurring costs. In terms of personal finance, saving generally specifies low-risk preservation of money, as in a deposit account, versus investment, wherein risk is a lot higher; in economics more broadly, it refers to any income not used for immediate consumption. Saving does not automatically include interest.

An individual savings account is a class of retail investment arrangement available to residents of the United Kingdom. First introduced in 1999, the accounts have favourable tax status. Payments into the account are made from after-tax income, then the account is exempt from income tax and capital gains tax on the investment returns, and no tax is payable on money withdrawn from the scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reserve Bank of India</span> Central bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for the control, issue and maintaining supply of the Indian rupee. It also manages the country's main payment systems and works to promote its economic development. Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran (BRBNM) is a specialised division of RBI through which it prints and mints Indian currency notes (INR) in four of its currency printing presses located in Nashik, Dewas, Mysore and Salboni. The RBI established the National Payments Corporation of India as one of its specialised division to regulate the payment and settlement systems in India. Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation was established by RBI as one of its specialised division for the purpose of providing insurance of deposits and guaranteeing of credit facilities to all Indian banks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taxation in the United Kingdom</span>

Taxation in the United Kingdom may involve payments to at least three different levels of government: central government, devolved governments and local government. Central government revenues come primarily from income tax, National Insurance contributions, value added tax, corporation tax and fuel duty. Local government revenues come primarily from grants from central government funds, business rates in England, Council Tax and increasingly from fees and charges such as those for on-street parking. In the fiscal year 2014–15, total government revenue was forecast to be £648 billion, or 37.7 per cent of GDP, with net taxes and National Insurance contributions standing at £606 billion.

Postal savings systems provide depositors who do not have access to banks a safe and convenient method to save money. Many nations have operated banking systems involving post offices to promote saving money among the poor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India Post</span> Statutory Body of India

India Post is a government-operated postal system in India, part of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world. Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in the country in 1766. It was initially established under the name "Company Mail". It was later modified into a service under the Crown in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie. Dalhousie introduced uniform postage rates and helped to pass the India Post Office Act 1854 which significantly improved upon 1837 Post Office act which had introduced regular post offices in India. It created the position Director General of Post for the whole country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permanent account number</span> Code that acts as an identification for individuals, families and corporates

A permanent account number (PAN) is a ten-character alphanumeric identifier, issued in the form of a laminated "PAN card", by the Indian Income Tax Department, to any person who applies for it or to whom the department allots the number without an application. It can also be obtained in the form of a PDF file known as e-PAN

A tax refund or tax rebate is a payment to the taxpayer due to the taxpayer having paid more tax than they owed.

A consumption tax is a tax levied on consumption spending on goods and services. The tax base of such a tax is the money spent on consumption. Consumption taxes are usually indirect, such as a sales tax or a value-added tax. However, a consumption tax can also be structured as a form of direct, personal taxation, such as the Hall–Rabushka flat tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Savings and Investments</span> United Kingdom government non-ministerial department

National Savings and Investments (NS&I), formerly called the Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings, is a state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is both a non-ministerial government department and an executive agency of HM Treasury. The aim of NS&I has been to attract funds from individual savers in the UK for the purpose of funding the government's deficit. NS&I attracts savers through offering savings products with tax-free elements on some products, and a 100% guarantee from HM Treasury on all deposits. As of 2017, approximately 9% of the government's debt is met by funds raised through NS&I, around half of which is from the Premium Bond offering.

TreasuryDirect is a website run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service under the United States Department of the Treasury that allows US individual investors to purchase treasury securities, such as savings bonds, directly from the US government. It enables people to manage their investments online, including connecting their TreasuryDirect account to a bank account for deposits and withdrawals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Income tax in India</span> Form of taxation in India

Income tax in India is governed by Entry 82 of the Union List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, empowering the central government to tax non-agricultural income; agricultural income is defined in Section 10(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Income-tax law consists of the 1961 act, Income Tax Rules 1962, Notifications and Circulars issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), annual Finance Acts, and judicial pronouncements by the Supreme and high courts.

Tax deduction at source (TDS) in India is a means of collecting tax on income, dividends, or asset sales by requiring the payer to deduct tax due before paying the balance to the payee.

The Public Provident Fund (PPF) is a savings-cum-tax-saving instrument in India, introduced by the National Savings Institute of the Ministry of Finance in 1968. The main objective of the scheme is to mobilize small savings by offering an investment with reasonable returns combined with income tax benefits. The scheme is fully guaranteed by the Central Government. Balance in the PPF account is not subject to attachment under any order or decree of court under the Government Savings Banks Act, 1873. However Income Tax & other Government authorities can attach the account for recovering tax dues.

A fixed deposit (FD) is a financial instrument provided by banks or non-bank financial institutions which provides investors a higher rate of interest than a regular savings account, until the given maturity date. It may or may not require the creation of a separate account. The term fixed deposit is most commonly used in India and the United States. It is known as a term deposit or time deposit in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and as a bond in the United Kingdom.

A recurring deposit is a special kind of term deposit offered by Indian banks and Post Office which helps people with regular incomes to deposit a fixed amount every month into their recurring deposit account and earn interest at the rate applicable to fixed deposits. It is similar to making fixed deposits of a certain amount in monthly installments. This deposit matures on a specific date in the future along with all the deposits made every month. Recurring deposit schemes allow customers an opportunity to build up their savings through regular monthly deposits of a fixed sum over a fixed period of time. The minimum period of a recurring deposit is six months and the maximum is ten years.

Kisan Vikas Patra is a saving certificate scheme which was first launched in 1988 by India Post. It was successful in the early months but afterwards the Government of India set up a committee under supervision of Shyamala Gopinath which gave its recommendation to the Government that KVP could be misused. Hence the Government of India decided to close this scheme and KVP was closed in 2011 and the new government re-launched it in 2014.

Sukanya Samriddhi Account is a Government of India backed saving scheme targeted at the parents of girl children. The scheme encourages parents to build a fund for the future education of their female child.

National Savings Certificate in Bangladesh encompasses different types of savings schemes operated by National Savings Department, Bangladesh. It is supervised by Internal Resources Division of Ministry of Finance of Government of Bangladesh. Every year the profit margins of these schemes are declared after cutting the 5% source tax. These certificates are sold and encased in the post offices in Bangladesh.

References

  1. "National Savings Institute". 2005. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  2. "All you wanted to know about National Savings Certificates". Money Control. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  3. "Interest on savings schemes cut". The Hindu . 15 January 2000. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  4. "NSC, KVP to be issued in electronic form" . Retrieved 25 July 2022.