Tax saving investment options

SECTION 80C DEDUCTIONS: Investment options under Section 80C can be broadly categorised as market linked, fixed income and insurance. The fixed income category includes investment options such as the Public Provident Fund (PPF), Employee Provident Fund (EPF), tax-saving bank fixed deposits, National Savings Certificate (NSC) and senior citizens savings schemes.

While it is the most popular tax saving category, market-linked instruments including tax-saving equity mutual funds (ELSS) and unitlinked insurance plans (ULIPs) are gradually catching up.

PUBLIC PROVIDENT FUND (PPF): One of the oldest investment options, PPF scores on all grounds as it is one of the very few investment options that fall under EEE (exemptexempt-exempt) tax regime.

This implies that not only the investor can enjoy deduction on the amount invested in this scheme but the interest received on maturity is also exempt from tax.

PPF offers an interest rate of 8% compounded annually, with the maximum investment restricted to Rs 70,000 a year and mandatory investment tenure of 15 years.

An investment of Rs 70,000 every year in PPF for 15 years will amount to a taxfree maturity sum of Rs 20.5 lakh at the end of the 15 year tenure.

EMPLOYEE PROVIDENT FUND (EPF): Under the current norms, 12% of the employee's salary is contributed towards EPF, which is exempt from income tax. Any contribution over and above the 12% limit by the employee towards EPF is consider as voluntary provident fund (VPF) and the same is also exempt from tax, subject to the overall 80C limit of Rs 1 lakh per annum.

Like PPF, EPF, also falls under the EEE tax regime wherein the interest received (on retirement from service) is tax-free in the hands of the investor. The interest payable on EPF is determined each year by the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). After having maintained a steady interest rate of 8.5% per annum for quite some time, the EPFO has enhanced the rate of interest to 9.5% for the financial year 2010-11.

While it is still not sure whether such an attractive interest rate will continue in the following years, those who have been contributing to EPF for quite some time now and have accumulated a large corpus are bound to benefit immensely with this year's higher interest as interest is compounded annually.

NATIONAL SAVINGS CERTIFICATE: Similar to PPF, NSC also earns an interest rate of 8% per annum and investment up to Rs 1 lakh is exempt from tax under section 80C. However, unlike PPF, interest received on NSC, at the time of maturity, is taxable in the hands of the investor which makes it comparatively less attractive.