New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has formally issued the notification for Mahila Samman Savings Certificates, 2023 which has been made available in 1.59 lakh post offices with immediate effect.


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The scheme was announced in the 2023-24 Budget by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, aiming towards financial inclusion and empowerment of women, including girls.


The notification was issued on March 31, 2023.


The two-year tenure scheme offers an attractive and fixed interest of 7.5 per cent interest compounded quarterly with flexible investment and partial withdrawal options with a maximum ceiling of Rs 2 lakh.


"These measures will immensely benefit the post office small savings customers and attract more investment in these schemes through post offices, especially in rural areas and amongst girls, women, farmers, artisans, senior citizens, factory workers, government employees, small traders and other sections of the society. They will get better return on their investment in small savings schemes," the Finance Ministry said.


The government has raised the rate of interest on various Small Savings Schemes for the first quarter of the financial year 2023-24 starting April 1 by up to 70 basis points (100 basis points is equal to 1 percentage point).The government typically reviews the interest rates on small savings schemes every quarter.


The formula to arrive at the interest rates for a small savings scheme was given by the Shyamala Gopinath Committee. The committee had suggested yields on government bonds should be the benchmarks for the interest on various small savings instruments and should be reset every first of April. The interest rate on the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme was hiked by 20 basis points, National Savings Certificate by 70 basis points, Kisan Vikas Patra by 30 basis points, and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana by 40 basis points.


The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also increased the repo rate since May 2022 to manage rising inflation. In line with RBI`s rate hike, banks are following suit, which is a positive for various deposit schemes.