Govt. of India Schemes

GoI Guaranteed Savings & Investment Schemes

India's small savings schemes — PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS), NSC, KVP, POMIS, and Post Office Time Deposits — carry a sovereign guarantee (no DICGC-style cap) with interest rates set quarterly by the Ministry of Finance, linked to G-Sec yields via the Shyamala Gopinath Committee formula and unchanged for eight consecutive quarters as of April 2026. Current rates: PPF 7.1%, SSY and SCSS both 8.2%, NSC 7.7%, KVP 7.5% (115-month maturity), POMIS 7.4%, 3-year POTD 7.1%. The critical distinction across these schemes is tax treatment: PPF and SSY are EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) — 80C deduction, tax-free interest, tax-free maturity — while SCSS, NSC, KVP, and POMIS are taxable at slab rate (NSC and 5-year POTD offer 80C on principal only). We cover SCSS's recently-raised ₹30 lakh deposit limit and its interaction with the Section 194A TDS threshold for senior citizens, SSY's 15-year deposit/21-year maturity structure for a girl child under 10, and flag the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate (2023) as a time-bound scheme whose new-deposit window may have since closed.