Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while making Budget 2023 announcements on Wednesday, introduced an one-time new small savings scheme 'Mahila Samman Bachat Patra'. This will be made available for 2 years period till March 2025 and will offer deposit for women/girls with fixed interest rate of 7.5 percent, FM said.

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The maximum deposit amount has been kept at Rs 2 lakh and the scheme will have a partial withdrawal facility as well.

Sitharaman also said that for the economic empowerment of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana National Rural Livelihood Mission, 81 lakh self-help groups have been created by mobilising rural women.

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"We will enable these groups to reach the next stage of economic empowerment through the formation of large producer enterprises or collectives with each having several thousand members," she said.

Financial assistance of more than Rs 2.25 lakh crore has been provided to small farmers under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi. About three crore women farmers have been provided Rs 54,000 crore under the scheme, the finance minister said.

Sitharaman also announced enhancing the maximum amount of money that can be invested in the senior citizen saving scheme (SCSS) to Rs 30 lakh compared to Rs 15 lakh now.

The postal monthly income scheme also saw an enhancement of limit. In a single name, Rs 9 lakh can be invested as compared to Rs 4.5 lakh now.

Small savings schemes are widely popular among investors. These are designed to provide safe and attractive investment options to the public and at the same time to mobilise resources for development. These schemes are operated through about 1.54 lakh post offices throughout the country.

Today’s development comes days after the government recently announced a hike in small savings interest rates by up to 1.1 percentage points for the January-March quarter.

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First Published:Feb 1, 2023 12:16 PM IST