SCSS account can now be extended indefinitely

Is it possible to extend the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) after eight years? - Anonymous

There has been a revision in the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) rules. The SCSS has a fixed tenure of five years, after which the deposited money is returned to the investor. If desired, the account holder could extend the same account for an additional three years.

However, this extension was allowed just once.

If the account holder wanted to keep enjoying the benefits of SCSS, they had to start from scratch by opening an entirely new account.

But this has changed now.

The SCSS can be extended indefinitely in blocks of three years each. It implies you don't need to open a new SCSS account after the 5-plus-3-year period. Instead, account holders can continually increase the tenure of their existing account in three-year increments.

What you can do

It is important to note that the interest rate on the day of account opening/extension gets locked for the entire tenure of five or three years, as the case may be.

Given that SCSS is currently yielding 8.2 per cent per annum, and it may not significantly rise from here in the near future, it may still be beneficial to open a new account if you are looking for an extension. That way, you'd enjoy the lock-in 8.2 per cent rates for five years instead of just three.

Also read: What happens if the SCSS account holder passes away