Post Office Savings Schemes

Read this table down the tax column first, not the rate column. Two schemes here pay 8.2%. One of them is tax-free and one is not. For a saver in the 30% bracket that single difference is worth more than any rate gap on the page. Rates are set by the Ministry of Finance and re-notified every quarter, so the figures below carry the quarter they belong to.

What are the post office scheme interest rates right now?

These are the rates for the July to September 2026 quarter, which is Q2 of FY 2026-27, from the Ministry of Finance quarterly notification.

Scheme	Rate	Tenure	Minimum	Maximum	Tax treatment	80C eligible
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana	8.20%	21 years from opening	₹250 a year	₹1.5 lakh a year	EEE — fully tax-free	Yes
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme	8.20%	5 years, extendable by 3	₹1,000	₹30 lakh	Interest fully taxable; TDS above ₹1 lakh	Yes
National Savings Certificate	7.70%	5 years	₹1,000	No limit	Interest taxable; reinvested interest counts for 80C	Yes
Kisan Vikas Patra	7.50%	About 115 months	₹1,000	No limit	Interest fully taxable	No
Post Office Monthly Income Scheme	7.40%	5 years	₹1,000	₹9 lakh single, ₹15 lakh joint	Interest fully taxable	No
Public Provident Fund	7.10%	15 years, extendable in 5-year blocks	₹500 a year	₹1.5 lakh a year	EEE — fully tax-free	Yes

Source: Ministry of Finance quarterly notification, rates as of 1 July 2026 for the July to September 2026 quarter.

Which schemes are missing from this table, and why?

The post office also runs a savings account, a 5-year recurring deposit, time deposits of 1, 2, 3 and 5 years, and the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate. Their rates are not printed here. We could not open the government notification or the India Post rate page directly, and this site does not publish a rate it has not read at source. Ask at the counter, or read the current quarter’s notification, before you open one of those.

That is a real gap and worth saying plainly. The 5-year post office recurring deposit in particular is the main alternative to a bank RD. Our page on recurring deposit rates covers the bank side, where we could verify the numbers.

How should you read the rate column?

Not on its own. Convert every rate to what you keep after tax. Here is the same table after tax for someone in the 30% slab, where the effective rate is 31.2% once the 4% cess is added.

Scheme	Headline rate	Taxable?	Approximate post-tax yield at the 30% slab
Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana	8.20%	No	8.20%
Public Provident Fund	7.10%	No	7.10%
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme	8.20%	Yes	5.64%
National Savings Certificate	7.70%	Yes	5.30%
Kisan Vikas Patra	7.50%	Yes	5.16%
Post Office Monthly Income Scheme	7.40%	Yes	5.09%

Our workings, applying the 30% slab plus 4% cess to the quarterly rates above.

The order changes completely. PPF at 7.10% beats SCSS at 8.20% for a high-slab saver, even though SCSS looks a full percentage point better. That reversal is the single most common misreading of this table. It does not apply to everyone. A retiree with income under the basic exemption pays no tax, so SCSS at 8.20% genuinely is the best rate on the page for them.

The 80C column only pays if you are in the old regime

This is the second trap. The new tax regime is the default, and 80C is not available inside it. So the deduction column above is worth nothing unless you actively opt into the old regime and your total deductions justify it. Many savers still choose PPF or NSC “for the tax saving” while filing under the new regime and getting none. Work through old versus new regime before you use 80C as a reason to buy anything, and read Section 80C for what still qualifies.

Does Kisan Vikas Patra really double your money?

Yes, and it is not a bonus. It is just compounding. At 7.50% a year, money doubles in about 115 months, which is what the scheme promises. Any deposit at 7.50% does the same thing over the same period. The doubling is the marketing, not the return, and the interest is fully taxable on top.

Which of these rates can change after you deposit?

This matters more than the rate itself and almost nobody checks it. As the schemes are designed, the fixed-term certificates lock your rate on the day you buy. The long-running accounts do not; they take whatever the Ministry notifies each quarter, on your whole balance.

So a PPF or Sukanya balance is exposed to every future quarterly revision. An NSC or KVP bought today carries today’s rate to maturity. Confirm this at the counter for the specific scheme you open, because it changes what a rate comparison even means. A high rate you keep for five years is not the same product as a high rate that can be cut in three months.

Where do these compare with a bank deposit?

On sovereign safety, nothing beats them. A post office scheme is a direct government liability. A bank deposit is insured only to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank under DICGC cover. Above that limit the comparison is not like for like at all.

On rate, small finance banks currently pay more than most of these schemes, and the FD rate comparison shows the gap. On tax, only PPF and Sukanya are exempt, and no bank deposit is. That is why the honest answer depends entirely on your slab and your horizon, not on which number is biggest.

Frequently asked questions

Which post office scheme gives the highest return?

Sukanya Samriddhi and the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme both pay 8.20% for the July to September 2026 quarter. Sukanya is tax-free and SCSS is not, so for a taxpayer in the 30% slab Sukanya is far ahead. Sukanya can only be opened for a girl child, and SCSS only by a senior citizen, so most savers cannot choose between them anyway.

Are post office scheme rates fixed for the full tenure?

It depends on the scheme. Certificates such as NSC and KVP fix the rate on the date of purchase. Accounts such as PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi follow the quarterly notification for as long as they run. Confirm the rule for your scheme at the post office before you deposit, because it decides whether a rate comparison holds for one quarter or for years.

Is PPF better than a fixed deposit?

For a 30% slab taxpayer, usually yes on a like-for-like basis. PPF pays 7.10% tax-free, which a taxable deposit would have to pay over 10% to match. The trade-off is liquidity: PPF runs 15 years with limited partial withdrawal, while a fixed deposit can be broken. See the PPF account guide for the withdrawal and loan rules.

Is post office interest tax-free?

Only for PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi, which are exempt at deposit, on accrual and at maturity. SCSS, NSC, KVP and the Monthly Income Scheme all pay fully taxable interest at your slab rate. TDS applies on SCSS interest above ₹1 lakh. Taxable interest must be reported in your return whether or not TDS was deducted.

Can an NRI open a post office scheme?

No. These schemes are for resident individuals. If you become a non-resident while holding one, the rules on continuation differ by scheme, and a PPF account in particular has specific treatment. Confirm at the post office before you change status, and see NRE and NRO accounts for what a non-resident can hold instead.

Sources

Ministry of Finance, quarterly notification of small savings rates, July to September 2026 quarter, as of 1 July 2026.
Income tax slabs, cess and 80C availability by regime: our tax dataset for FY 2026-27, as of 17 August 2026, based on incometax.gov.in.
Rates for the post office savings account, recurring deposit, time deposits and Mahila Samman Savings Certificate are deliberately omitted. The India Post and National Savings Institute pages did not open for us, and we do not republish a rate we have not read at source.