Top 10 ELSS funds: Save tax, make money

The story seems to be repeating itself month after month. Tax saving mutual funds, of the open-ended variety, are churning out higher returns compared to the 30-stock benchmark, the BSE Sensex.

Equity linked saving schemes or ELSS as they are known popularly have not only helped you save taxes -- which is the main purpose why most investors put their money into such schemes -- but also made money for you. And loads of it if the figures of top 10 ELSS funds for the period from November 28 2006 till November 27, 2007 are concerned.

For the period under consideration all the Top 10 tax saving mutual funds have given higher returns compared to the Sensex gain of 41 per cent.

Taurus Libra Taxshield, which has companies like Reliance Capital, IDFC, JK Lakshmi Cement, Southern Iron & Co and Usha International amongst its top 10 holdings, is the topmost gainer with a 75.5 per cent return.

Simply put an amount of Rs 10,000 invested in the above fund on November 28, 2007 would have increased to Rs 17,550 by November 27, 2007.

Principal Personal Taxsaver, the second best performer in this category, gained 56.93 per cent return for those investors who were patient enough to remain invested in the scheme for the last one year.

Templeton Franklin India Index Tax Fund, the last fund in the ranking, outperformed the Sensex with an annual gain of 43.96 per cent.

The table below shows the top 10 ELSS funds:

Source: Rediff MoneyWiz