The Hindu Business Line : Pennywise

He has made a few lakh rupees by saving a few fifty rupees every month since 1987... by simply being pennywise! He blazed his way into the Limca Book of Records twice — in 1997 and 2000 — for holding the highest number of small saving accounts (60 and 100 accounts respectively) by an individual under the Salary Saving Scheme initiated by the National Savings Organisation through the post office. He now aspires to be featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for the feat.

P.K. Jain, a Process Technician in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO), Korba, has 178 post office recurring deposit accounts, with a maturity period of five years. He believes he is contributing to the country's development in his own little way. "The people's savings are a source of finance for the government's investment schemes. So each of us has a responsibility towards mobilising resources towards this cause. In doing so, we are the first and last to benefit, particularly the salaried people, most of whom do not have money to splurge."

Saving Rs 3,000 a month, about 58 per cent of his meagre salary, was no mean task for Jain 10 years ago. A humble childhood in Madhya Pradesh had taught him to be cautious and thrifty. It was on October 30, World Thrift Day, 1984, that he received a circular issued by his company on the post-office linked National Savings Scheme (NSS) for salaried staff.

Systematic in his approach, Jain studied the NSS for 18 months, made laborious calculations and tabulated and analysed them carefully. He made use of three tables and planned the implementation in three phases. With only a school education when he joined BALCO, and drawing a low salary, Jain could barely afford to save Rs 50 a month. Yet he was determined to make money, legally and without risk.

The first phase was to open a new account every six months with Rs 50 as base. His did this for two-and-a-half years, thus increasing his savings to Rs 250 a month. Then began the second phase when he opened new accounts every other month. Following this pattern for two years, Jain implemented his final saving phase, opening new accounts every month, thus saving 58 per cent of his salary in the final month of the final phase — with Rs 50 as the monthly deposit for all accounts.

Says Jain, "There are no restrictions on the number of accounts an individual can have under this scheme, except that he/she can open only one account per month since the saving is linked to the salary. Also, except for the tax implications, there is no ceiling on the amount you save under this scheme."

Authorised agents soon took notice of the investor and prompted him to make public his savings policy and have his feat recorded in the Limca Book of Records. The idea appealed to Jain, not for personal gains, but to popularise this simple saving method, from which both the common man with little income, and the government would benefit. "Imagine the resource mobilisation for the country if we can have millions of small savers contributing to the cause — and that too without risk," he says.

With the 120-account mark, Jain reaped a rich harvest — Rs 5 lakh, something that would have been difficult to achieve in 15 years with his salary. Jain was also interviewed by the Indian representative of the Guinness Book of World Records at the British High Commission, New Delhi, earlier this year.

However, his goal is to address the labour force at an International Labour Organisation platform. "I want to impress upon people that it is possible for every member of the labour force to achieve what I have, to enhance their living standards, upgrade their lifestyle, promote their welfare and that of the State in which they live and earn, by this simple saving technique. We don't have to shed blood for our countries; let us only donate blood periodically and save pennywise, the rest will fall in place," he says.

The icing on the cake: He opens an account every year on his wife's and daughter's birthdays.

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