Post Office Monthly Income Scheme

Post Office Letter Boxes, EC1A 1AA .London Chief Office 1994photo © 2008 Felix O | more info (via: Wylio)

Couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Monthly Income Plans or MIPs, and this week I’m going to write about a similar monthly income scheme from the Indian post office called the Post Office Monthly Income scheme.

This is a fixed income scheme which provides you a guaranteed return on your investment, and is meant for people who are looking for a monthly source of income without taking any risk at all.

Where the mutual fund MIP invests a part of its assets in equity, and even gold in some cases – and may sometimes even get you a higher than 10% return (with commensurate risk of course) this scheme has a fixed rate of return and is meant for people looking for an ultra safe investment.

Here are some features of this scheme.

Post Office MIS Interest Rate

This is a scheme from the Indian postal service that earns you an interest of 8% per annum, and generates a monthly income for you.

So if you invest Rs. 100,000 in it – your annual interest at 8% will be Rs. 8,000, and you will get Rs. 666.67 monthly.

Post Office MIS Tenure

The maturity period of the scheme is 6 years, at the end of which you will get your money back. You cannot redeem your money within a year, but you can redeem it after that upon paying a penalty.

Here is how that works.

Less than 1 year: MIS can’t be encashed.

1 – 3 years: You are penalized 2% of deposit.

After 3 years: You are penalized 1% of your deposit.

5% Bonus

If you retain your Post Office MIS till maturity (6 years) – at the end of the time period you will be given a 5% bonus on your deposit.

Minimum and Maximum Investment

The minimum sum you can invest is Rs. 1,500, and you can go up to Rs. 450,000 in case of a single account, and Rs. 900,000 in case of a joint account.

Tax on Post Office MIS

There is no TDS on the Post Office MIS, but the interest income is taxable in your hands. The interest income from post office MIS used to be tax free under section 80L, but that section has been withdrawn from April 1 2005.

Interest can be automatically credited to your bank

At the time of opening the scheme you can give in your bank account details, and interest will be automatically credited to your bank every month.

Transfer from one post office to another

There is a provision that allows you to transfer your money from one post office to another. So, if you opened your account in one post office, and moved to another place you can fill up a transfer form with them, and move your scheme to another post office.

Conclusion

This scheme is meant for people who are looking for an ultra safe investment and a regular source of monthly income on top of it. A lot of retired people will fall under this category, and if you fall under that category then you need to evaluate other options like the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme before you invest in this scheme. I”ll cover that scheme in the days to come, and if you have any questions about this particular scheme or any other observations please leave a comment.

255 thoughts on “Post Office Monthly Income Scheme”

  1. Matured value of a recurring deposit for Rs2000 for 10years from Feb2009 in a commercial bankin February 2019?

    .?
    2000 per month for 10years from Feb2009 in a

  2. hi
    i opened my MIS on 9 nov 2012. How much time period was being applied on it whether for 5 years or 6 years?
    sanjay kumar

  3. Practical commentary . I am thankful for the details , Does anyone know where my business might be able to acquire a sample TX DL-14A copy to use ?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *