Eight years with DSP ELSS Tax Saver Fund

My investment in DSP ELSS Tax Saver started as a way for me to save tax. When I started, I had selected two funds for my ELSS investments, the other one being L&T Tax Advantage Fund which I later discontinued. Back then—I am not sure if it’s still the case—the advice to save tax was to invest in ELSS rather than PPF for 80C. Especially if you are young and have a long road ahead of you. 

I went via the SIP route and my initial three SIPs were in a regular plan. After reading a bit more, learning about direct plans and their lower expense ratios, I cancelled the regular plan SIP and moved to a direct plan.

During my initial years the SIP amount was very low. You can see in Figure 1 that the total investment I made in DSP ELSS Tax Saver Fund during FY 2018-19 is just 2.2% of my overall investment. As I was tracking the performance of DSP ELSS Tax Saver, I realised the fund was outperforming my other investments—both equity and mutual funds. This led me to steadily increase my investments year or year. Come every April and I would increased my SIP amount. The percentage didn’t matter. I increased to whatever I thought I could manage for the next one year. I also sprinkled lumpsum investments in between my SIPs—sometimes because I had surplus money to invest, others when the markets were in a tizzy due to some or the other global events. In Dec’24, I paused the SIP to focus on other financial commitments.

DSP ELSS Tax Saver Fund’s benchmark is the Nifty 500—and it has, more or less, beaten it consistently(Figure 2). The outperformance is also on the higher side—with Nifty 500 at 12.4% XIRR while the fund at 16.1%. But the global uncertainties since last two years has impacted the XIRR. Last year, the fund had an XIRR of 22%. And two years before, it was 30%.

How does DSP ELSS Tax Saver stack up against its competitors?

I analysed CRISIL’s Mutual Fund Ranking and compared my returns to each of the ELSS funds. Here’s how I conducted my calculations.

1. I included only those funds that were established before my first investment in the DSP ELSS Tax Saver. Therefore, you won’t find WhiteOak Capital ELSS Tax Saver Fund in the list, as it was launched after my first investment in the DSP ELSS Tax Saver.
2. For the competitor funds, I used the same investment amounts and dates as those for my investment in DSP ELSS Tax Saver. This approach allowed me to answer the question, “What if I had invested in XYZ ELSS Fund?”

The table below illustrates the profit I would have earned had I invested in other ELSS funds. DSP ELSS Tax Saver Fund ranks at #6—missing out #5 by 0.1%.

Mutual funds	Profit (as of Jul’26)	Rank
Quant ELSS Tax Saver Fund	105.3	1
Motilal Oswal ELSS Tax Saver Fund	104.4	2
SBI ELSS Tax Saver Fund	86.6	3
HSBC ELSS Tax Saver Fund	76.3	4
HDFC ELSS Tax Saver	75.0	5
✦ DSP ELSS Tax Saver Fund	74.9	6
Bank of India ELSS Tax Saver	72.7	7
Baroda BNP Paribas ELSS Tax Saver Fund	72.0	8
Edelweiss ELSS Tax Saver Fund	71.9	9
Mirae Asset ELSS Tax Saver Fund	71.8	10
Tata ELSS Tax Saver Fund	69.8	11
Nippon India ELSS Tax Saver Fund	68.5	12
Bandhan ELSS Tax Saver Fund	66.9	13
Franklin India ELSS Tax Saver Fund	65.3	14
Canara Robeco ELSS Tax Saver Fund	64.6	15
Union ELSS Tax Saver Fund	63.3	16
Invesco India ELSS Tax Saver Fund	61.3	17
ICICI Prudential ELSS Tax Saver Fund	60.9	18
Mahindra Manulife ELSS Tax Saver Fund	57.2	19
PGIM India ELSS Tax Saver Fund	56.7	20
Quantum ELSS Tax Saver Fund	55.5	21
✦ Nifty 500	54.3	22
LIC MF ELSS Tax Saver	53.5	23
Sundaram ELSS Tax Saver Fund	53.3	24
Taurus ELSS Tax Saver Fund	53.0	25
Aditya Birla Sun Life ELSS Tax Saver Fund	51.6	26
UTI ELSS Tax Saver Fund	50.1	27
Axis ELSS Tax Saver Fund	47.5	28
Groww ELSS Tax Saver Fund	46.5	29

If I plot the profit percentages for the last eight years, DSP ELSS Tax Saver has continuously been in the top ~5 ELSS funds year-on-year (Figure 3).

Another way to look the trend is using a bar race chart shown below.

A few observations:

1. ELSS funds from Quant and Motilal Oswal have significant outperformance over other ELSS funds.
2. I haven’t researched on the benchmarks of other ELSS funds, but a significant number of ELSS funds have outperformed the Nifty 500 benchmark. This makes the outperformance of DSP ELSS Tax Saver a bit less special for me.
3. Post Covid, Quant ELSS Tax Saver Fund has consistently beaten other funds. That too with a significant margin. It’s like Usain Bolt. Everyone else is running for second position.

Fun fact: As I mentioned earlier, I had invested and discontinued my investment L&T Tax Advantage Fund. That fund house was later acquired by HSBC and the fund rechristened to HSBC ELSS Tax Saver Fund. That fund now ranks at #4, two ranks above DSP ELSS Tax Saver.

Disclaimer: The performance—outperformance and underperformance—shown in my analysis is as of today. Just because some fund has outperformed today does not indicate it will continue to outperform in the future. And vice-versa. This is the analysis of what has already happened. I have no clue what will happen in the future.