Your PPF, SCSS & Other Post Office Schemes Will Be Discontinued If Fail To Do This By September

Post office savings schemes are debt instruments that are not only risk-free but also offer a fixed rate of returns. Opening a post office account can be done online or offline by submitting identity, and address proof documents containing proof of identity and address for the purpose of opening an account. However, existing account holders of small savings schemes such as Public Provident Fund Account (PPF), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme Account (SCSS)​, Kisan Vikas Patra(KVP) among others shall be discontinued if they fail to submit their Aadhaar details to the respective bank or post office on or before 30th September as per a govt notification.

For PPF, NSC, and other small savings programmes, the Ministry of Finance has made Aadhaar and PAN mandatory. A notice with the date March 31, 2023 was used to make this known. According to the announcement, a depositor who already has an account but has not yet submitted his or her Aadhaar number to the respective bank or post office must do so within six months commencing on April 1, 2023. On September 30, 2023, the six-month term will come to an end.

"Where the Aadhaar Number has not been assigned to an individual. he shall furnish proof of application of enrollment for Aadhaar at the time of opening an account and the account holder shall furnish the Aadhaar number to the Account office within a period of six months from the date of opening of account for linking the account with Aadhaar Number," the Ministry of Communication said in a notification dated 03.04.2023.

"If a depositor has already opened an account and has not submitted his Aadhaar number to the Account Office, he shall do so within a period of six months with effect from the 1st day of April,2023. And in the event of failure of the depositor to submit the Aadhaar number within the specified period of six months, his account shall cease to be operational till the time he submits the Aadhaar Number to the Accounts Office," the Ministry further stated.

The Ministry has also mandated that anyone who did not provide a permanent account number (PAN) while creating an account must do so within two months of the occurrence of specific conditions by submitting it to the accounts office.

As per the notification, provided that the individual who has not submitted the permanent Account Number at the time of opening of account shall submit the same to the Accounts office within a period of two months from the date of happening of any of the following events, whichever is the earliest, namely;-

(i) the balance at any point of time in the account exceeds fifty thousand rupees or

(ii) the aggregate of all credits in the account in any financial year exceeds one lakh rupees; or

(iii) the aggregate of all withdrawals and transfers in a month from the account exceeds ten thousand rupees

In the event of the failure of the depositor to submit the Permanent Account Number within the specified period of two months, his account shall cease to be operational till the time he submits the Permanent Account Number to the Account Office; (c) any other document as may be considered necessary by the Accounts Office including those related to the nature of business and financial status of the depositor.