Savings
Kisan Vikas Patra interest rate: 7.5%, which is the same fact as 115 months
KVP pays 7.5% and doubles a deposit in 115 months — one fact stated twice. The encashment table, the tax that undoes it, and where it sits against NSC.
Kisan Vikas Patra pays 7.5% a year, compounded annually, and a certificate bought today matures in 115 months — nine years and seven months — at exactly twice what was paid for it. Those are not two separate facts. At 7.5% compounded annually a sum doubles in 115.01 months, so the rate and the term are one statement written two ways, and the Ministry publishes both because a saver who cannot compound in their head can still read a date off a certificate.
The 7.5% rate and the 115-month term have stood since 1 April 2023, and the quarter running 1 July to 30 September 2026 left them alone again. Figures below were read from the National Savings Institute’s own pages on 10 September 2026. India Post’s scheme pages returned a server error to every request today, so nothing here is taken from them; where a rule could only have come from India Post, it is left out rather than guessed at.
The rate and the doubling period are the same number
Work it in either direction and you land on the other figure. Doubling at 7.5% compounded annually takes ln 2 ÷ ln 1.075 years, which is 9.5844 years, or 115.01 months. Invert it — solve for the rate that turns ₹1 into ₹2 across 115 months — and you get 7.5008%. The published pair is internally consistent to four decimal places, and the rounding down to a whole 115 months hands the buyer a rounding error of eight ten-thousandths of a percentage point.
The consequence is the part worth carrying away. The payout never changes; only the wait does. Every certificate, in every rate era, returns exactly twice the purchase price. A rate cut does not shrink what you receive — it pushes the date out. That is a genuinely unusual way to sell a fixed-income product, and it is why KVP is discussed in months while everything beside it is discussed in percentages.
What the wait has actually been
| Period of purchase | Rate | Money doubles in |
|---|---|---|
| 23.09.2014 to 31.03.2016 | 8.7% | 100 months |
| 01.04.2016 to 30.09.2016 | 7.8% | 110 months |
| 01.10.2016 to 31.03.2017 | 7.7% | 112 months |
| 01.04.2017 to 30.06.2017 | 7.6% | 113 months |
| 01.07.2017 to 31.12.2017 | 7.5% | 115 months |
| 01.01.2018 to 30.09.2018 | 7.3% | 118 months |
| 01.10.2018 to 30.06.2019 | 7.7% | 112 months |
| 01.07.2019 to 31.03.2020 | 7.6% | 113 months |
| 01.04.2020 to 30.09.2022 | 6.9% | 124 months |
| 01.10.2022 to 31.12.2022 | 7.0% | 123 months |
| 01.01.2023 to 31.03.2023 | 7.2% | 120 months |
| 01.04.2023 to 30.09.2026 | 7.5% | 115 months |
The spread across a decade is two years. Someone who bought in 2015 doubled their money in eight years and four months. Someone who bought in the middle of 2021 waits ten years and four months for the identical result. Today’s buyer sits between them.
What the table also settles is a question people ask at the counter: no, a running certificate does not reprice when the quarterly notification moves. The rate and the maturity date attach on the day of purchase and hold for the whole term. That is the scheme’s real product feature. Almost nothing else available to an ordinary Indian saver fixes a rate for nine years and seven months — a bank term deposit rarely prices past ten years at all, and where it does, it usually pays less than its own two-year bucket.
Doubling is a promise about rupees, not about what they buy
Put ₹5,00,000 into a certificate today and ₹10,00,000 comes back in April 2036. Run the same 7.5% for 115 months as ordinary compounding and you get ₹9,99,926, which is the rounding again.
Now deflate it. At 5% inflation, that ₹10,00,000 buys what ₹6,26,500 buys today — a real return of 2.38% a year. At 6% inflation it buys what ₹5,72,100 buys today, and the real return is 1.42%. The purchasing power does not double; it grows by somewhere between a seventh and a quarter, and only if inflation behaves. The word “doubling” is doing a great deal of marketing work for a product whose real return is low single digits, and it is worth putting your own inflation assumption through the lumpsum calculator before treating the maturity figure as a plan.
Buying one, and who is allowed to
The deposit rules are the least surprising part of the scheme. A minimum of ₹1,000 and any sum in multiples of ₹100 may be deposited, and there is no maximum limit either on one account or across all the accounts one person holds. Certificates can be bought at post offices and at authorised banks.
An adult may hold a certificate singly or on behalf of a minor; a minor above ten may hold one in their own name; and joint accounts run to three adults, in an ‘A’ type payable to the holders jointly or to the survivor, or a ‘B’ type payable to either or the survivor. The Government Savings Promotion General Rules, 2018, restrict eligibility to a resident citizen of India, and they deal with what happens if that changes: where the holder becomes a non-resident, the account may be continued to maturity, the benefits are available only on a non-repatriation basis, and the account cannot be extended beyond maturity.
Two documentation triggers catch people out because they are stated as balances rather than as a purchase price. Under the Government Savings Promotion General (Amendment) Rules, 2023, a Permanent Account Number must be furnished within two months where the balance at any time exceeds ₹50,000, or where credits in a financial year exceed ₹1,00,000, or where withdrawals and transfers in a month exceed ₹10,000. An Aadhaar number, or proof of having applied for one, is required at opening, with the number itself to follow within six months — and an account without it becomes non-operational. The ₹10 lakh income-proof threshold that circulates in most KVP write-ups does not appear anywhere we could find in the current General Rules; we could not confirm it, so this page does not state it.
Encashment: two and a half years, then a table
A certificate can be encashed after two and a half years from the date of investment. Separately, the scheme allows closure at any time before that on the death of the holder, on forfeiture by a pledgee who is a gazetted officer, or when ordered by a court — and in those three cases the rules pay principal plus simple interest at the post office savings account rate for the complete months held. That is the worst outcome in the scheme, and it is the one attached to the sympathetic circumstances.
Ordinary encashment after two and a half years is paid from a fixed table of amounts per ₹1,000, banded in six-month steps. Here is the shape of it, from the table the scheme notification carries for certificates bought on or after 1 April 2020:
| Held for | Paid per ₹1,000 | Yield that implies |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5 to under 3 years | ₹1,154 | 5.90% |
| 5 to under 5.5 years | ₹1,332 | 5.90% |
| 7.5 to under 8 years | ₹1,537 | 5.90% |
| 10 years to maturity | ₹1,774 | 5.90% |
| On maturity | ₹2,000 | the contracted rate |
Every band in that table, all sixteen of them, is ₹1,000 compounded at 5.90% — our own arithmetic on the published figures, not something the notification says. So breaking a KVP does not work the way breaking a bank fixed deposit works. There is no rebuilding of the rate to a shorter bucket and no separate penalty percentage; the whole holding period is simply repaid at one flat rate, a full percentage point below the 6.9% those certificates contracted for.
The cliff is at the end, and it is large. A certificate closed inside its final band pays ₹1,774 per ₹1,000. Held to maturity a few months later it pays ₹2,000 — 12.7% more, earned by doing nothing. If you are within a year of maturity, borrowing against the certificate or almost any other bridge is likely to beat closing it.
One caution about that table. The version published with the scheme rules belongs to certificates bought on or after 1 April 2020, when the term was ten years and four months. A certificate bought today runs 115 months, and the scheme as notified on the NSI site has not been re-issued with a matching table — it still carries only the 124-month Table-2 inserted by G.S.R. 283(E) of 5 May 2020. A later Kisan Vikas Patra (Amendment) Scheme, 2023 exists and is not hosted there. Ask the post office for the table that applies to your date of purchase before assuming these numbers.
After maturity, and the two things you can do with a live certificate
A matured balance does not sit idle and it does not keep earning 7.5%. The General Rules provide that the balance continues to earn interest at the rate applicable to a post office savings account until the account is closed, which is 4.0% for the current quarter. Leaving a matured certificate uncollected for a year therefore costs about three and a half percentage points on the full doubled amount — a far more expensive oversight than it was on the way in.
While it is running, a certificate can be moved from one post office to another, and it can be pledged or transferred as security on an application accepted by the pledgee. Transfer from one holder to another is allowed only on the holder’s death, on the order of a court, or on pledging. The pledge route is what makes the final-year cliff manageable: the certificate stays alive and keeps compounding towards ₹2,000 while the borrowing sits on top of it.
Tax undoes a good part of the doubling
KVP is not a tax-saving product. No deduction is claimed for it on the government’s scheme pages, and the interest is taxable in full at your slab rate as income from other sources. Deductions of that kind survive only under the old regime in any case, and the new regime is now the default — the comparison is set out in our page on the old versus new tax regime.
Because the entire payout arrives at the end, the timing choice is real. Interest can be declared year by year as it accrues, or all at once in the year of encashment. The second route drops ₹5,00,000 of interest into a single return and can push an otherwise ordinary year into the top slab; the accrual route spreads it and is usually the cheaper one. The accrual principle and the declaration in Form 121, which replaced the old nil-tax declarations from 1 April 2026, are covered in our guide to tax on deposit interest.
Run the arithmetic on the doubling and the headline stops looking generous. For a taxpayer in the 30% slab, paying tax on accrual at 31.2% with cess, 7.5% becomes 5.16% net. On that rate ₹5,00,000 reaches about ₹8,09,800 in 115 months rather than ₹10,00,000, and genuinely doubling takes roughly 165 months — close to fourteen years. Whether KVP is worth buying is a question about your slab before it is a question about the scheme.
Where KVP sits in the family
| Scheme | Rate this quarter | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Citizens Savings Scheme | 8.2% | 5 years |
| Sukanya Samriddhi | 8.2% | tied to the girl’s age |
| National Savings Certificate | 7.7% | 5 years |
| Kisan Vikas Patra | 7.5% | 115 months |
| 5-year time deposit | 7.5% | 5 years |
| Monthly Income Scheme | 7.4% | 5 years |
| Public Provident Fund | 7.1% | 15 years |
| 3-year time deposit | 7.1% | 3 years |
| 2-year time deposit | 7.0% | 2 years |
| 1-year time deposit | 6.9% | 1 year |
| 5-year recurring deposit | 6.7% | 5 years |
| Post office savings account | 4.0% | — |
KVP is not the best rate on that list, or even in the top three. The five-year time deposit pays the identical 7.5% for a little over half the lock-in, and NSC pays more. The two schemes above it are gated: SCSS needs age 60 and stops at ₹30 lakh, and Sukanya needs a daughter. The full family, with the limits and the tax treatment on each, is in our overview of post office savings schemes, and the eligibility and exit rules for the highest-paying one are in our page on the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme.
So KVP earns its place on two things only: an unlimited ceiling, and a rate fixed for nine years and seven months. For a retired saver who has already filled ₹30 lakh of SCSS, that combination is worth something real. For most other people the honest comparison is with NSC at 7.7% and the post office time deposits, which pay as much or more over shorter, more forgiving terms.
One point in the scheme’s favour that no bank product can match: the money is a Government of India liability, so there is no ceiling on the backing. Bank deposits are insured only to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank, principal and accrued interest together, after lawful set-off — the mechanics are in our page on DICGC deposit insurance. A ₹40 lakh KVP holding needs no splitting across institutions; a ₹40 lakh bank ladder does.
Before you buy
| If this describes the money | KVP is | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Needed on a date inside five years | the wrong product | Encashment before maturity pays a flat table rate, not the contracted one |
| A lump sum above ₹30 lakh, safety first, no date attached | a reasonable fit | No ceiling, sovereign backing, rate fixed for 115 months |
| Retirement income you intend to spend | the wrong product | KVP pays nothing until maturity; SCSS and the Monthly Income Scheme pay out |
| Being compared with NSC for a five-year goal | second best | NSC pays 7.7% and matures on your date |
| Held by someone in the 30% slab | expensive | 7.5% becomes about 5.16% after tax, and the doubling takes 165 months |
Buy in the denomination you might actually need to break, not as one large certificate — the scheme allows any number of accounts, and several smaller certificates let you encash part of the holding without disturbing the rest. Record the maturity date somewhere you will see it, because the day after it the money starts earning 4.0%. And check the rate and the maturity period printed on the certificate against the notification in force on your purchase date; that pair, not the one on any website, is what governs your money for the next nine years and seven months.
Common questions
How long does Kisan Vikas Patra take to double money right now?
115 months — nine years and seven months — for a certificate bought while the current notification is in force. That period is not a policy choice made separately from the rate: at 7.5% compounded annually a sum takes 115.01 months to double, so the Ministry is publishing the answer to its own compounding sum. The period is fixed on the day you buy and does not change afterwards, whatever the quarterly notification does to the rate for new buyers.
Can a KVP certificate be encashed before maturity?
Yes, generally after two and a half years from the date of purchase, and the amount payable then comes from a table in the scheme notification rather than from your contracted rate. Closure is also allowed before that on the death of the holder, on forfeiture by a pledgee who is a gazetted officer, or by order of a court — and a closure in those circumstances inside the first two and a half years pays only the principal plus simple interest at the post office savings account rate for the complete months held. After two and a half years the table applies however the account is closed.
Is KVP better than the National Savings Certificate?
Not on rate. For the quarter running to 30 September 2026, NSC pays 7.7% against KVP's 7.5%, and both compound annually and pay everything at the end. What KVP buys is duration: it fixes its rate for 115 months, while NSC fixes 7.7% for five years and then leaves you to reinvest at whatever is notified in 2031. KVP also has no upper limit, which matters for a large sum. NSC is the better answer for money with a five-year deadline.
Does Kisan Vikas Patra give any tax benefit?
No deduction is claimed for KVP on the government's own scheme pages, and the interest is taxable in full at your slab rate. Because the entire payout arrives at the end, you can either declare the interest year by year as it accrues or declare all of it in the year of encashment — and the second route can push a single year into a higher slab. For a taxpayer in the 30% band, tax turns 7.5% into about 5.16% after cess, at which rate the money takes roughly 165 months to genuinely double.
What happens if a matured KVP is left uncollected?
Under the Government Savings Promotion General Rules, 2018, a matured balance continues to earn interest at the rate applicable to a post office savings account until the account is closed — 4.0% for the current quarter, against the 7.5% the certificate was earning. There is one exception worth knowing: where the holder has become a non-resident, the same rules say the account may run to maturity but cannot be extended beyond it and no interest accrues after the maturity date.
Sources
Rates and rules on this page were read directly from the following sources on the dates shown. Figures change — if you are about to act on one, confirm it at the source.
- Kisan Vikas Patra — scheme features (minimum deposit, account types, encashment after two and a half years, transfer)
- Kisan Vikas Patra Scheme — rate of interest and maturity period since re-launch (7.5%, 115 months, 1.04.2023 to 30.09.2026)
- Rate of interest on national savings schemes, w.e.f. 1st April 2025 onwards
- Kisan Vikas Patra Scheme, 2019 — G.S.R. 920(E) dated 12 December 2019, as amended by G.S.R. 283(E) dated 5 May 2020
- Government Savings Promotion General Rules, 2018
- Government Savings Promotion General (Amendment) Rules, 2023 — G.S.R. 238(E) dated 31 March 2023, substituting rule 6(1) (PAN within two months of the ₹50,000, ₹1,00,000 and ₹10,000 triggers; Aadhaar within six months), circulated as SB Order No. 08/2023
- Small Savings — “Revision of Interest Rates for Small Savings Schemes-reg.”, office memorandum dated 30.06.2026 (Q2 FY 2026-27)
- Slab rates, surcharge and cess for individuals, and the deductions available under the old and the default regime
- Guide to deposit insurance