A National Savings Certificate or NSC as it’s popularly known are issued at the post offices and are extremely secure instruments that help you get tax benefits under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.
The popular National Savings Certificate (NSC) has a tenure of 5 years. Being a rather long term investment, it is highly likely that an individual would have relocated to another place and has an NSC that needs to be encashed or redeemed.
The question then is:
How to encash a NSC or redeem the NSC or withdraw a NSC issued at another post office?
You bought NSC (National Savings Certificate), but during maturity time, what if you are not in the same city or the post office from where you bought is too far? How to encash or withdraw NSC bought from different Post Office?
This is the common concern faced by many. Because while buying we never know what will happen after 5 or 10 years. Either we may shift to a new city or the post office may be too far to reach. For a few, it is hard to visit that city. Because we found that few readers of ours website ReckonTalk bought the NSC from South India like Bangalore or Chennai, but currently they are residing in Delhi, Kolkata or Gurgaon. In this post we will try to simplify this common problem.
There are two aspects of this situation and they are as below.
1) If NSC is not yet matured
If this is the case, then first you have to think whether it is possible for you to reach the concerned post office easily. If not, then the second option is to apply for transfer. The process is as below.
- Download the Form NC-32 from Post Office Portal. Using this form you can apply for transfer.
- Provide the NSC details like name(s) in which the certificates were issued, serial number, date of issue and denomination, serial number of identity slip, and details of the issuing office.
- Mention cases like transfer spoilt, issue of duplicate certificates etc.
- Provide the nominee details also as you mentioned while buying it.
- This form should be signed by the holder of NSC. If it either multiple or joint holding, then all such holders signature is required. In case of minor holders, the guardian must sign.
- Submit this form to the nearest post office or where you want it to be transferred. Along with Form NC-32, also submit the photocopy of NSC and an ID Proof. The concerned post office will send the application post office where you originally bought it.
- Usually, such transfer will take around 2-3 months.
2) If NSC is already matured
If the maturity date of the NSC has been already over, then to encash such NSC, there are again two ways to do it.
a) If both the encashing and original post office (from where you bought NSC) are connected with CBS Technology-
Luckily knowingly or unknowingly both the post offices are connected with CBS (Core Banking Solution) Technology, then it is a sigh of relief for you 🙂
Because if they are connected through CBS and have internet facility, then you just need to submit original NSC certificate and original identity proof to the post office where you want to encash. The concerned person will verify the authenticity using CBS and internet. Once the verification is done, then the money will be payable to you in the same post office immediately. That’s it !!
b) If either of the encashing and original post office (from where you bought NSC) is not connected with CBS Technology-
In this case you have to feel unlucky. Because it takes around 10-12 days officially. But in reality it may be delayed. The process is explained below.
- Visit the post office along with original NSC, Identity Slip (issued during buying), identity proof and a handwritten application (I have not found any particular application).
- Submit this to the branch, where you want to encash or withdraw the NSC.
- They will verify the genuineness of the claim and process it immediately.
- If you don’t have identity slip then it may take the below lengthy process.
They have to verify the authenticity of the claim. So they follow the below process.
# The postmaster where you submitted the NSC for encashment will first verify for “Register of lost/stolen certificates”. Upon satisfaction that this particular NSC is neither stolen or lost certificate, he will send the application to the divisional office. This they usually do it within 24 hours or in a working day.
# The concerned Divisional Office will forward the application to the parent Divisional Office of the Post Office which issued the certificate. This may take 48 hours or 2 working days.
# The Divisional Office will verify the authenticity of the claim and by consulting the issuing post office. This usually takes around 7 working days.
# After verification, they send back the application to the divisional office under where the application for encashment was submitted.
# Finally, the concerned Divisional Office after receipt of the application from the parent Divisional Office after due verification will communicate the same to post office where an application was submitted for encashment and payment will be made after following the due procedure as per the rules.
Hope this information will be useful for all.