Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana interest rate: Will 8.2% hold in October? 5 things to know

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) currently pays 8.2% interest rate per annum and the rate for October-December 2026 will be announced tomorrow. The SSY rate was last raised from 8.0% to 8.2% with effect from January 1, 2024, and it has been left untouched in the last 10 notifications. If September 30's notification for the October-December 2026 quarter also leaves it alone, it would be the 11th straight quarter without a revision.

An SSY account can be opened for a girl below the age of 10, with a minimum yearly deposit of ₹250 and a maximum of ₹1.5 lakh. The account matures 21 years from opening. Up to half the balance can be withdrawn for the girl's education after she turns 18. SSY is fully tax-free, meaning deposit, interest and maturity proceeds are all exempt. At the current rate, a parent depositing ₹1.5 lakh every year for 15 years can build a corpus of roughly ₹44.8 lakh, which will grow to about ₹71.8 lakh by year 21 if left untouched.

As per Shyamala Gopinath Committee framework, SSY is benchmarked to long-term G-secs with a 75-basis-point spread. In late September, 15-year G-secs yielded about 7.2% and 30-year paper around 7.55% after a six-week bond selloff. Adding the spread gives a formula band of roughly 8.0-8.3%. The current 8.2% is within this band.

The government has frozen all small savings rates for nine consecutive quarters. These rates are reviewed every quarter. Rising long-term G-sec yields have strengthened the case for the existing 8.2%. So no cut in SSY rate is expected on Wednesday, September 30.

The Public Provident Fund (PPF) pays 7.1%, and both schemes enjoy the same fully tax-free status. SSY pays 1.1 percentage points more than PPF, but it is only available for a girl child below 10, with the same ₹1.5 lakh yearly cap as PPF.

SSY, like PPF, is a floating-rate scheme. The rate declared for a quarter applies to the entire outstanding balance. This means, a cut would apply to existing corpus from the next quarter onward, and a hike would lift it the same way.