Are the liquid funds the same as Liquid BEES or is there any difference between these two products?
Answer 
While these two appear to be similar product, there is a subtle difference between Liquid Funds and Liquid BeEs. Liquid Funds are typical mutual funds that pool money from investors and invest in short term instruments. These are typically instruments with a maturity of less than 91 days. Liquid Funds typically invest in instruments like call money markets, 91-day treasury bills, short term securities etc. The idea of a liquid mutual is to invest in these instruments where returns are safe and not volatile. Therefore you will not find too much difference between the returns on liquid funds of two different AMCs.
Liquid BeEs, on the other hand, is an exchange traded fund that is listed on the NSE and can be bought and sold like any other listed share and held in your demat account. Liquid BeEs will always have a fixed NAV as daily dividends are assumed to be paid out and credited in the form of additional units. Since these additional units are by way of dividend payouts, they are not taxed in the hands of investors making them more tax efficient. Like other ETFs, the Liquid BeEs is also benchmarked to an index. Typically, in case of Liquid BeEs, the benchmark is the CRISIL Money Market Index. Normally, liquid funds and Liquid BeEs, are free from entry load and exit load and hence entry and exit is not too expensive, making them good instruments for parking short term funds.
While these two appear to be similar product, there is a subtle difference between Liquid Funds and Liquid BeEs. Liquid Funds are typical mutual funds that pool money from investors and invest in short term instruments. These are typically instruments with a maturity of less than 91 days. Liquid Funds typically invest in instruments like call money markets, 91-day treasury bills, short term securities etc. The idea of a liquid mutual is to invest in these instruments where returns are safe and not volatile. Therefore you will not find too much difference between the returns on liquid funds of two different AMCs.
Liquid BeEs, on the other hand, is an exchange traded fund that is listed on the NSE and can be bought and sold like any other listed share and held in your demat account. Liquid BeEs will always have a fixed NAV as daily dividends are assumed to be paid out and credited in the form of additional units. Since these additional units are by way of dividend payouts, they are not taxed in the hands of investors making them more tax efficient. Like other ETFs, the Liquid BeEs is also benchmarked to an index. Typically, in case of Liquid BeEs, the benchmark is the CRISIL Money Market Index. Normally, liquid funds and Liquid BeEs, are free from entry load and exit load and hence entry and exit is not too expensive, making them good instruments for parking short term funds.