Friday, December 27, 2019

Senior citizens can withdraw postal deposits at any time

27/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Senior citizens who have deposited in postal saving schemes may now withdraw their deposits at any time. This is one among the changes made in saving schemes after the recent gazette notification brought out by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

Earlier, senior citizen account holders were allowed to opt for premature closure of their accounts only after a year of deposit. Following the gazette notification, the senior citizens’ saving scheme does not have any lock-up period. However, when an account is closed before one year, interest paid on the deposit will be recovered.

The changes are expected to increase the number of accounts. At present, there are nearly 1.09 lakh senior citizen postal account holders in the Chennai city region.

The previous revision for the scheme through a gazette notification was done in 2004. Similarly, changes were made to different postal saving schemes during various years, between 1981 and 2016. New forms have also been introduced for various transactions under the schemes, be it premature closure or withdrawal.

Sources said postal customers would have to increase their minimum balance in savings accounts within a year, after which a penalty of ₹100 per year would be levied. Earlier, customers could maintain a minimum balance of ₹50. It has now been revised to ₹500. This would bring down silent saving accounts and provide better interest rates on deposits, officials said.

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