Notification No. 24

Income-tax (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2009 - Amendment in rule 67

What this is

Notification No. 24 was published on 12 March 2009. Its subject is Income-tax (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2009 - Amendment in rule 67.

This amends the Income-tax Rules. What it changes is the Rules, not the Act — and a rule can never take away what the section gives.

What it does

By the Income-tax (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2009, made under sub-section (1) of section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Central Board of Direct Taxes substitutes sub-rule (2) of rule 67 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The substituted sub-rule prescribes the investment pattern by a Table: up to fifty-five per cent in Government securities, in other securities as defined in section 2(h) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 whose principal and interest are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the Central or a State Government, and in units of mutual funds set up as dedicated funds for investment in Government securities and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India; up to forty per cent in debt securities of not less than three years' maturity issued by bodies corporate including banks and public financial institutions, in term deposit receipts of not less than one year issued by scheduled commercial banks meeting the stated tests, and in rupee bonds of at least three years' outstanding maturity issued by institutions of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank; up to five per cent in money market instruments including units of money market mutual funds; and up to fifteen per cent in shares of companies on which derivatives are available on the Bombay Stock Exchange or the National Stock Exchange, or in equity linked schemes of mutual funds regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Who it reaches

trustees of recognised provident funds investing the fund's moneys
employers maintaining such funds
scheduled commercial banks and bodies corporate whose instruments the funds may hold
assessing officers testing whether the conditions of recognition are met

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.2	s.2, s.346, s.355
s.12	s.335, s.337, s.355
s.295	s.533

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

INCOME-TAX (FIFTH AMENDMENT) RULES, 2009 - AMENDMENT IN RULE 67
NOTIFICATION NO. 24/2009, DATED 12-3-2009

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Income-tax Rules, 1962, namely:-
1. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2009.
(2) They shall come into force with effect from the first day of April. 2009.
2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, in rule 67, for sub-rule (2) the following shall be substituted, namely:-
"(2) The manner of investment referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be in accordance with the following Table, namely:-

TABLE
INVESTMENT PATTERN

SI. No.

Investment

Maximum percentage amount to be invested in items

referred to in column (2)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(i)

(a) in Government securities;

(b) Other securities, as defined in section 2(h) of the Securities Contract (Regulation) Act, 1956, the principal whereof and interest whereon is fully and unconditionally guaranteed by the Central Government, or any State Government, except those covered under clause (ii)(a) below: and/or

(c) units of mutual funds set up as dedicated funds for investment in

Fifty five per cent.

Government securities and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

(ii)

Debt securities with maturity of not less than three years tenure issued by Bodies Corporate, including banks and public financial institutions;

Term Deposit Receipts of not less than one year duration issued by scheduled commercial banks fulfilling all the following criteria:

it has made profit continuously for immediately preceding three years;

it is maintaining a minimum Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio of 9 per cent;

it is having net non-performing assets of not more than 2 per cent. of the net advances; and

it is having a minimum net worth of not less than rupees 200 crore; and/or

(c) Rupee Bond having an outstanding maturity of at least three years issued by institutions of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank.

Forty per cent

(iii)

Money market instruments including units of money market mutual funds

Five per cent

(iv)

Shares of companies on which derivatives are available in Bombay Stock Exchange or National Stock Exchange or equity linked schemes of mutual funds regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Fifteen per cent

Provided that any moneys received on the maturity of investments made prior to the 1st day of April, 2009, reduced by obligatory outgoings, shall be invested in accordance with the manner of investment specified in this sub-rule:

Provided further that the investment pattern specified in this sub-rule may be achieved by the end of the previous year; so however that at no time during the year investment in any category should exceed by more than ten per cent of the limit prescribed:

Provided also that, irrespective of the proportion of investments stated in clauses (i) of the said Table, exposure of a trust to any individual mutual fund, under sub-clause (c) of the said clause, which has been set up as a dedicated fund for investment in Government securities, shall not exceed five per cent of its total portfolio at any point of time:

Provided also that the trustees shall invest at least 75 per cent of the amount invested under sub-clause (a) of clause (ii) of the said table in instruments having an investment grade rating from at least one credit rating agency registered under sub-section (1A) of section 12 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992):

Provided also that in the event of the rating of any instruments mentioned in this sub-rule for being rated and their rating falling below the investment grade, as certified by one credit rating agencies registered under sub-section (1A) of section 12 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (15 of 1992), then the option of exit from such instruments can be exercised and the released funds shall be invested in accordance with the manner provided in the Table of this sub-rule:

Provided also that the turnover ratio, being the value of securities traded in the year divided by the average value of the portfolio at beginning of the year and the end of the year, should not exceed two.

Explanation I.- The manner of investment specified in this sub-rule shall apply to the aggregate amount of investible moneys with the fund in the previous year.
Explanation 2.- For the purposes of this sub-rule,-
(i) the expression "Government securities" shall have the meaning assigned to in clause (b) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956:
(ii) the expression "public financial institutions" shall have the meaning assigned to it in section 4A of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956);
(iii) the expression "public sector company" shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (36A) of section 2 of the Income-tax Act;
(iv) the expression "public sector bank" shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (23D) of section 10 of the Income-tax Act; and
(v) the expression "securities" shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (h) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956.".
[Notification No. 24. F.No. 142/13/2008-TPL]

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.

Rule of the 1962 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 67	rule 292

From when

1 April 2009.

What to watch

The rules come into force with effect from 1 April 2009.
Moneys received on maturity of investments made before 1 April 2009, reduced by obligatory outgoings, must be reinvested in accordance with the new pattern, so the substituted sub-rule reaches the older corpus as it matures.
The pattern may be achieved by the end of the previous year, but at no time during the year may investment in any category exceed the prescribed limit by more than ten per cent.
Exposure to any individual dedicated gilt mutual fund under sub-clause (c) of clause (i) may not exceed five per cent of the total portfolio at any point of time, whatever the proportion allowed by clause (i).
At least 75 per cent of the amount invested under sub-clause (a) of clause (ii) must be in instruments carrying an investment grade rating from at least one credit rating agency registered under sub-section (1A) of section 12 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, and where a rating falls below investment grade the trustees may exit and reinvest in accordance with the Table.
The turnover ratio, being the value of securities traded in the year divided by the average of the portfolio values at the beginning and the end of the year, must not exceed two.
Explanation 1 applies the pattern to the aggregate amount of investible moneys with the fund in the previous year, not to each investment separately.

Where you meet it

In the annual investment statement of a recognised provident fund and in any examination of whether the conditions of recognition continue to be satisfied.

An example

Ours, not the Board’s: a worked case built from the rule the instrument sets, to show how it falls out.

For a fund with Rs. 100 crore of investible moneys in the previous year, not more than Rs. 55 crore may go into the first category, Rs. 40 crore into the second, Rs. 5 crore into money market instruments and Rs. 15 crore into shares or equity linked schemes. Within the second category at least Rs. 30 crore of the Rs. 40 crore, being 75 per cent of what is invested under sub-clause (a), must carry an investment grade rating, and no single dedicated gilt mutual fund may account for more than Rs. 5 crore of the portfolio at any time.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 67 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 89/2026-CBDT [F. No. 164/1/2026-ITA-1] / SO 3936(E) — Ministry of Finance 17 July 2026
Notification No. 75/2026 [F. No. 275/18/2026-IT(B)] / SO 3610(E) : TDS Exemption on Ship Lease Payments to IFSC Units — 4 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 3 July 2026
Notification No. 74/2026 [F. No. 275/16/2026-IT(B)] / SO 3609(E) : TDS Exemption on Aircraft Lease Payments to IFSC Units — 4 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 3 July 2026
Notification No. 65/2025 [F. No. 300196/4/2019-ITA-I] / S.O. 2739(E) — Ministry of Finance 19 June 2025
Notification No. 56 /2025 [F.No.300164/4/2024-ITA-1] / SO 2576(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 12 June 2025
Notification No. 52/2025 [F. No. 300164/5/2024-ITA-1] / SO 2447(E) — Ministry of Finance 30 May 2025

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.