{"id":14841,"date":"2026-06-18T06:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/?p=14841"},"modified":"2026-06-09T06:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T06:26:59","slug":"psu-bonds-rec-pfc-nhai-evaluation-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/finance\/psu-bonds-rec-pfc-nhai-evaluation-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"PSU Bonds 2026: REC, PFC, NHAI – How to Evaluate and Buy the Best Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"PSU<\/figure>\n\n\n

Why PSU Bonds Deserve a Place in Every Fixed Income Portfolio<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PSU bonds offer a compelling risk-reward for fixed income investors: yields 80\u2013150 basis points above G-Secs, near-zero default risk (implicit government backing), and regular semi-annual interest payments. For investors in the 20\u201330% tax bracket, PSU bond yields of 8\u20138.5% provide 5.6\u20136.8% post-tax returns \u2014 often better than bank FDs net of tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top PSU Bond Issuers and Their Mandates<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Issuer<\/strong><\/th>Ministry\/Department<\/strong><\/th>Business<\/strong><\/th>Why Low Risk<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
REC Limited<\/td>Power Ministry<\/td>Loans to power sector utilities<\/td>Govt shareholding 52%+; policy support<\/td><\/tr>
PFC<\/td>Power Ministry<\/td>Loans to power sector<\/td>Same as REC; sister organisation<\/td><\/tr>
NHAI<\/td>Road Transport Ministry<\/td>Highway development<\/td>Revenue-backed; sovereign guarantee<\/td><\/tr>
IRFC<\/td>Railway Ministry<\/td>Lease finance for Railways<\/td>100% Govt owned; railways pay lease<\/td><\/tr>
NaBFID<\/td>Finance Ministry<\/td>Infrastructure finance<\/td>New DFI with Govt backing<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How to Evaluate PSU Bond Quality<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Credit rating: Minimum AAA from CRISIL, ICRA, or CARE. Never buy below AA+ for PSU bonds<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Issuer’s financial health: Check NPA ratios (for lending PSUs like REC, PFC) \u2014 under 4% is comfortable<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Government holding %: Higher government stake = stronger backing signal<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Yield vs maturity: Compare yield to equivalent G-Sec to check if premium is adequate<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Liquidity: Check daily trading volume on NSE debt segment \u2014 thinly traded bonds have wide bid-ask spreads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Where to Buy PSU Bonds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • NSE\/BSE debt segment via Lemonn demat account (secondary market)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • RBI Retail Direct for some government-guaranteed bonds<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Primary market via bank bond applications during new issuance<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Debt mutual funds: Lemonn’s mutual fund platform for PSU debt fund SIPs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Tax Planning with PSU Bonds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Interest from PSU bonds is taxed at slab rate \u2014 same as FDs. However, if you buy PSU bonds at a discount (below face value in secondary market), the difference at maturity is taxed as capital gains (12.5% LTCG after 24 months). This can be more tax-efficient than interest income for investors in the 30% bracket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Why PSU Bonds Deserve a Place in Every Fixed Income Portfolio PSU bonds offer a compelling risk-reward for fixed income investors: yields 80\u2013150 basis points above G-Secs, near-zero default risk (implicit government backing), and regular semi-annual interest payments. For investors in the 20\u201330% tax bracket, PSU bond yields of 8\u20138.5% provide 5.6\u20136.8% post-tax returns \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":14846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_ayudawp_aiss_exclude":false,"_ayudawp_aiss_summary":"Why PSU Bonds Deserve a Place in Every Fixed Income Portfolio. PSU bonds offer a compelling risk-reward for fixed income investors: yields 80\u2013150 basis points above G-Secs, near-zero default risk (implicit government backing), and regular semi-annual interest payments. However, if you buy PSU bonds at a discount (below face value in secondary market), the difference at maturity is taxed as capital gains (12.5% LTCG after 24 months).","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_provider":"extractive","_ayudawp_aiss_summary_hash":"cd4c1a8157c6b88289a26858c22400bbfb683311","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals.png",768,512,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals.png",768,512,false],"large":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals.png",768,512,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals.png",768,512,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals.png",768,512,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals-640x512.png",640,512,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals-96x96.png",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PSU-Bonds-2026-REC-PFC-NHAI-How-to-Evaluate-and-Buy-the-Best-Deals-150x100.png",150,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team Lemonn","author_link":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/author\/yudh\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Why PSU Bonds Deserve a Place in Every Fixed Income Portfolio PSU bonds offer a compelling risk-reward for fixed income investors: yields 80\u2013150 basis points above G-Secs, near-zero default risk (implicit government backing), and regular semi-annual interest payments. For investors in the 20\u201330% tax bracket, PSU bond yields of 8\u20138.5% provide 5.6\u20136.8% post-tax returns \u2014…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14848,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14841\/revisions\/14848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}