Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) Interest Rate July-September 2023: The SSY interest rate for the July-September quarter of FY 2023-24 was announced today (June 30). The Union Government has decided not to change the SSY interest rate, which is currently at 8%.
Earlier, SSY account holders are expecting a further hike in the interest rate. However, another hike was unlikely as the SSY interest rate was revised upwards in the last quarter.
In the April-June quarter of FY 2023-24, the SSY interest rate was increased to 8.2%. The SSY account allows depositing up to Rs 1.5 lakh per year in the name of a minor girl child aged 1-10 years. Deposits up to Rs 1.5 lakh in the SSY account qualify for tax deductions under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act (subject to the limit of Rs 1.5 lakh per year). The interest earned from SSY deposits is also tax-free.
In the last six months, the Finance Ministry has increased interest rates for small savings schemes like Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS), National Savings Certificate (NSC), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) account, Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), and Post Office deposit schemes like Post Office Time Deposit, Post Office Monthly Income Scheme (POMIS) and Post Office Recurring Deposit (RD). Only Public Provident Fund (PPF) interest rate has remained unchanged.
While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has paused the repo rate hike after increasing it by 2.5% since May 2022, there was very little possibility of a further hike in the SSY account interest rate today.
The interest rates of small savings schemes, including SSY, are linked to yields of Government Securities (G-Secs). The Finance Ministry reviews the interest rates of small savings schemes like the Sukanya Samriddhi Account every quarter of a financial year. The review is done on the basis of the G-Secs yields of the previous three months.
As the interest rates of most of the small savings schemes, including SSY, are already at par with fixed deposit rates offered by banks, the chances of a further hike in SSY rate were very low. Moreover, in view of RBI’s repo rate hike pause and falling inflation, experts believed there is not much room for an upward revision of the SSY account interest rate.