The issue will open on March 15, and is scheduled to close on March 31, 2001. This would be the seventh public offering under the umbrella prospectus approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for 2000-01, an ICICI release stated on Monday. The issue offers five options - tax saving bonds, regular income bonds, money multiplier bonds, children's growth bonds and pension bonds. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) and other corporate bodies (OCBs) are eligible to invest in these bonds on both a repatriable and non-repatriable basis. Interest rates have been reduced by 50-100 basis points (bps) for this public offering. The `tax saving bond' carries a coupon rate of 9.50 per cent per annum. ICICI ensures full and firm allotment against all valid applications for the tax saving option.

Investments in the scheme enjoy benefits under Section 88 of the IT Act, giving investors a total yield of 20.7 per cent per annum.

The maximum investment limit under the Section 88 tax saving scheme is Rs 80,000. Out of this, Rs 20,000 can be invested only in such eligible issues of capital, the proceeds of which are to be utilised in infrastructure projects, the ICICI release stated.

All the bonds offered will be available in the demat mode. All the bonds offered in the past since 1998 can also be held in the electronic form. No separate demat account is required to be opened for holding bonds. Investors can hold the bonds in the accounts in which they hold equity shares. At the time of redemption, investors need not worry about submitting the bond certificate to the issuing company, as the company will on its own, redeem the bonds and send the redemption cheque to the investor's address.