Benefits of Mutual Fund SWP  

Regularity: With an SWP, you are assured of get-ting a fixed amount at your pre-determined frequency. The problem with other options like a monthly income plans, which pay dividends, is that the amount and the frequency of the payouts is not fixed. Sometimes, if there is no appreciation which can be distributed, you might have no dividends to be paid. Hence every month you will have different amounts coming in and some month there might be no money received.

Taxation: SWP is better from the taxation point of view too. In debt funds dividends are paid after deduction of dividend distribution tax (DDT) of 28.32%. So that will be your tax in case you depend on dividend income from your debt mutual funds. In case of SWP, you will pay a short term capital gain (STCG) or a long term capital gains tax (LTCG). Though STCG may be more ex-pensive as it is on the income slab of the investor, LTCG will be beneficial as it is a fixed rate of 10% or 20% with indexation. Things get better in case of SWP from equity funds. As the long term capital gains from equity mutual funds are exempt in case of holding beyond a year, you end up paying no tax on the withdrawals.

Inflation Protection: Most of the fixed income instruments do not offer inflation beating returns. So, though the principal may be secure, the income might fall short of needs in future. Here again SWP scores in terms of generating returns to keep up with inflation especially if you opt for an equity fund.

The only drawback in the SWP is that it will at some point eat into your capital. But judicious mix of investment instruments will ensure that your primary goal of income generation will be met without you running out of money in times of need.

So the conclusion is that SWP is a noteworthy strategy to use for generation of regular income in various scenarios.