New Delhi: One, no longer needs to open a bank account to avail the government subsidies. If you have opened a post office savings account in the post office, then the government subsidy will be directly transferred to your post office saving account.
Only Aadhaar card is to be linked with the post office saving account. After this, the government subsidy will come to your account through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The Post Office Department (India Post) said that for this, customers have to fill an application form, as well as link their account with Aadhaar card.
The government issued a common application form to invest in Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and other small savings schemes in April.
It had released an application form for those who already have a savings account in the post office. It is issued under the name – Application for Linking / Seeding and Receiving DBT Benefits in-to POSB Account. Through this, account holders can link their savings account with their Aadhaar. At the same time, for providing offline links, you can submit your Aadhaar details to the respective post office branch.
The post office has made changes in some rules related to saving accounts. If customers do not follow these rules then they may have to suffer losses. According to the new rules, the postal department has increased the minimum balance in the post office account from Rs 50 to Rs 500.
So one should at least have 500 rupees in account. If there is no minimum balance, the post office will charge Rs 100 as penalty from you on the last working day of the financial year and this will be done every year.
Apart from it, if there is zero balance in the account, then the account will be automatically closed.