Friday, 4 March 2016

ELSS - An attractive investment avenue

Among the various tax saving products which gain popularity and achieve maximum sale in last financial quarter is the Equity Linked Saving Scheme (ELSS). ELSS is like any regular open ended equity mutual fund with an additional feature of tax saving under sec 80C of IT ACT 1961. However, unlike other equity funds it has a lock in period of three years.

Some of attractive features which makes it an interesting product for investment is :
  • Only investment avenue in 80C with an exposure in equities except the market linked ULIPS.
  • As compared to other tax saving avenues, it has lowest lock in period.
  • The investment in ELSS can be made both in SIPs or in lump sum mode as per our suitability.
  • The returns also vary and can be high over conventional debt and small saving schemes.
  • If the senior citizen falls under taxable income slab, he can invest his money in ELSS dividend mode. Although this could depend on his risk appetite.

The selection of ELSS scheme should be based on past performance of at least 3 years of scheme. (matching to its lock in period). Also, if an investment is made in any NFO it is wise to check the past performance of the fund manager and the corpus managed by him.

As on 2 March 2016, the following ELSS are the top performing funds
Fund Name
3 year return
5 year retun
Net asset value (Rs in crore)
Axis Long Term Equity Fund
24.91%
18.45%
6886
Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96
20.75%
12.68%
1928
Reliance Tax Saver Fund
20.18%
14.42%
4289

Although, financial planning does not advise last minute investments, we shared the above information to make mistake of wrong investment less grave.For any other information contact us at saarthifp@gmail.com

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