Union Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday opened the Mahila Samman Savings Certificate account at Sansad Marg Head Post Office in the national capital and urged more women to take benefit of the scheme.
Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs stood in the queue as a post office customer and thereafter completed the account opening formalities at the counter.
Her Mahila Samman Savings Certificate (MSSC) account was opened and computer generated passbook was handed over to the minister at the counter itself.
The minister also interacted with some of the MSSC and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account holders, as well as the post office staff.
Irani termed the scheme a unique and powerful step towards women's empowerment, and added that "every woman should take benefit of the scheme".
The MSSC scheme was announced in the 2023-24 Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and is a significant step towards financial inclusion and empowerment of women.
"The two-year tenure scheme offers an attractive and fixed interest of 7.5 per cent compounded quarterly with flexible investment and partial withdrawal options with a maximum ceiling of Rs 2 lakh," a release said.
The scheme is valid up to March 31, 2025. It has been made available in all 1.59 lakh post offices in the country from April 1, 2023.