Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS), under which tax benefits of up to Rs 25,000 for small investors in equities have been proposed to be phased out, seems to have had limited takers with more than 4,500 accounts having no investments at all.
Total number of RGESS accounts was 21,999, as of December 31. Of these, only 17,458 accounts were used for investments, which means that 4,541 such accounts have no investments at all, as per the latest data available with the depositories.
Total value of initial investments made by RGESS beneficiaries was Rs 9,372.23 lakh. Most of these investments have been made into mutual funds (Rs 7,568.52 lakh) followed by equity (Rs 1,727.42 lakh) and exchange-traded funds (Rs 76.29 lakh).
