Sukanaya Samriddhi Scheme- For the Luxmi of the Family

India is a country of ironies. This phenomenon gets manifested in worst manner possible in our attitude towards our girls. While we worship female form as a manifestation of power (Durga), love (Radha), money (Laxmi), knowledge (Saraswati) and lot more, we also sadly have one of the worst gender ratio - thanks to rampant female foeticide and infanticide.

It is to counter this harsh reality that government has introduced Sukanaya Samriddhi Scheme , which aspires to provide a secure, long term and ASSURED investment option for girl child. Lets have a look at the details.

Eligibility

Account can be opened subject to following conditions -

• In the name of girl child up to 10 years of age
• Maximum of one account per girl child
• Maximum of two accounts by one set of parents – third account can be opened provided two the girls children are twins or all three are born together.

Account Opening

Following documents are required -

• Birth Certificate of girl child
• ID and Address proof of the guardian of the child-who will operate the account on her behalf till she attains the age of 10 years, after which both guardian and girl child can operate the same
• Account can be opened either in a post-office or PSU bank
• Account can be transferred all over India in case account holders shifts her base

Rules

1. Minimum contribution of Rs. 1000/- in a financial year
2. A penalty of Rs. 50 if minimum contribution not made in a year
3. Maximum contribution of 1.5 lakhs in a year
4. Deposits can be made only for a period of 14 years from the date of account opening
5. No deposits shall be accepted from the 15th year of account opening

Withdrawal

• Permitted upto 50% of total amount when girl child turns 18.
• Fully withdrawable when girl turns 21 or when she gets married, if she get married before turning 21.
• After girl turns 21, account can be closed, otherwise it will continue getting interest on the accumulated amount, but no more deposit will be accepted.

Interest and Taxation

• For the current financial year, government has declared 9.1% as annual interest rate
• Full amount deposited under the scheme is tax exempted under Section 80(C)
• All the interest income on the deposit is also tax free
• The amount withdrawn from the account is also tax free

To summarise the scheme provides a very lucrative option for parents of girl child, but as always this scheme has to be analysed for the suitability in a holistic manner instead of temptation of promised high returns. Against the pros of High assured rate of return and Tax benefit , cons score in the form of illiquidity and hardship of facing PSU banks , which are most of times not willing to help even for smallest of the work, leave alone account opening.

Ever wondered why for some people PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi are best investment while for others it is Equities- Risk is the answer. Know your risk here. We do individual investment advice as well. Write to us at healthynivesh@gmail.com. For weekly investment advice like us on facebook. We promise we won’t spam :)