Mahila Samman Savings Certificate

The Mahila Samman Savings Certificate 2023 was a small savings scheme with a deadline built into it.

It was introduced in 2023 and made available for two years, from April 2023 to March 2025. It offered a maximum deposit of Rs 2 lakh in the name of women or girls, including minors, for two years, at a fixed 7.5 percent a year compounded quarterly.

Everything about it is short. A two-year term, a two-year window, a small cap.

And the window has shut. The workbook's own footnote records that in accordance with Ministry of Finance guidelines, enrolment officially expired on 31 March 2025, and no fresh deposits or new accounts have been accepted since 1 April 2025.

Accounts opened before that date are unaffected. They remain valid and continue to earn the promised interest until they reach their 2-year maturity.

The terms, as the workbook gives them.

What makes it unusual among the small savings schemes. Chapter 2 lists it alongside the Public Provident Fund, the Senior Citizens Saving Scheme, the National Savings Certificate, the Post Office schemes and deposits, Kisan Vikas Patra, the Sukanya Samriddhi Account and the Gold Monetisation Scheme. Set against those, two features stand out.

First, the rate is fixed at 7.5 percent for the full two years. Most small savings schemes are reset-linked, with rates re-fixed every quarter. This one was not.

Second, it was time-boxed from the start. The other schemes on the list are open-ended; the MSSC was announced with a closing date.

What the workbook does not give. No minimum deposit, no premature-closure rule, no partial-withdrawal rule and no tax treatment are stated for the MSSC. That is worth noting because its neighbours on the list do carry tax rules — a Sukanya Samriddhi deposit is eligible for deduction under section 123 read with Schedule XV of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (corresponding to section 80C of the 1961 Act), for instance. Nothing of the kind is stated for the MSSC, so no tax benefit should be assumed for it.

Where it fits in a retirement plan. It does not, really — and that is itself the teaching point. A two-year certificate capped at Rs 2 lakh is a short-term savings instrument, not an accumulation vehicle for a goal 25 years away. Chapter 6 reserves that role for products with long tenors and compounding, while short fixed-term certificates belong in the near-term bucket.

Mrs Sengupta opened a Mahila Samman Savings Certificate for Rs 2,00,000 — the maximum — in August 2023, at 7.5 percent compounded quarterly.

How the quarterly compounding works out

Quarterly rate = 7.5% / 4 = 1.875%
Number of quarters = 2 years x 4 = 8
Maturity value = 2,00,000 x (1.01875)^8 = about Rs 2,32,044

Had the same 7.5 percent been paid as simple annual interest rather than compounded quarterly, she would have received Rs 2,30,000 — so the quarterly compounding is worth roughly Rs 2,044 on a Rs 2 lakh deposit over two years. Small, but it is why the compounding frequency is part of the definition.

She also opened one for her daughter, a minor, for Rs 1,50,000 in January 2025 — inside the window, which closed on 31 March 2025. That certificate runs to January 2027 at the promised 7.5 percent, because existing accounts continue to their two-year maturity regardless of the enrolment window having closed.

And the one she could not open. In June 2025 she tried to place a further Rs 2,00,000 for her second daughter. Refused: no fresh deposits or new accounts have been accepted since 1 April 2025.

What the exam wants from this. The rate, the cap, the tenor and the window — 7.5 percent, Rs 2 lakh, two years, April 2023 to March 2025 — not a judgement about whether the scheme was a good idea.

Chapter 2, section 2.10.4, lists the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate among the government savings schemes and gives it a short paragraph with all four of its key terms, plus a footnote recording the closure of the enrolment window.

Expect a straight recall question: the maximum deposit under the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate is (Rs 2 lakh), the interest rate is (7.5 percent per annum compounded quarterly), the tenor is (two years), and who may hold it (women or girls, including minors). Because the workbook prints both the availability window and the closure footnote, a question may test the dates — available April 2023 to March 2025, closed to fresh deposits from 1 April 2025.

• Two years is both the tenor and the window. The certificate ran for two years, and the scheme accepted deposits for two years. Two different uses of the same number in one paragraph.
• Rs 2 lakh is the maximum, and the workbook gives no minimum. Do not import a minimum from another small savings scheme.
• 7.5 percent is fixed for the term, compounded quarterly. It is not reset every quarter like the other small savings rates. Quarterly compounding and a quarterly reset are different things.
• The scheme is closed to new accounts, but existing accounts are unaffected. They run to their two-year maturity at the promised rate. An answer saying existing holders lost the rate is wrong.
• The workbook states no tax benefit for the MSSC. Its neighbour Sukanya Samriddhi carries a section 123 deduction; do not carry that across.
• It is for women or girls, including minors — so a minor girl's account is expressly contemplated, unlike some other schemes with age conditions.
• This is a short-term certificate, not a retirement product. A two-year Rs 2 lakh instrument cannot accumulate a retirement corpus, whatever its rate.