Top 10 tax saving funds: Save tax, make money

Don't we all like making money? Especially if our money grows in value even as we save tax?

Interested? Well, it's not too difficult. One of your options is investing in tax saving mutual funds (ELSS). Those of you who invested in ELSS funds last year must be pretty happy.

According to Value Research, a premier mutual fund research company, investing in certain ELSS funds would have seen the value of your money grow by more than 50 per cent in the last one year.

Simply put, if you had invested Rs 10,000 on June 21, 2006, it would have multiplied to more than Rs 15,000 by June 22, 2007.

What's more, an investment of Rs 1,00,000 in these funds under Section 80C would have been exempt from tax. This would have helped you save on your taxes as well as earn good returns on your investments.

This table shows the top 10 tax saving mutual funds:

Open Ended - Equity: Tax Planning (one year return as on June 22, 2007)
Fund	NAVs as on June 22, 2007	Returns (per cent)
Principal Tax Savings	Rs 87.47	55.26
Principal Personal Tax Saver	Rs 148.99	54.96
Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96	Rs 101.92	53.86
Kotak Tax Saver	Rs 16.30	53.56
Fidelity Tax Advantage	Rs 14.05	52.00
Canequity-Tax Saver	Rs 17.49	48.28
Magnum Taxgain	Rs 47.53	47.70
Birla Equity Plan	Rs 64.18	46.93
ING Vysya Tax Savings	Rs 28.63	45.40
Franklin India Index Tax	Rs 33.2	41.83