Skip to main content

Small savings rates cut by 0.1%


The government on Friday lowered interest rates on smallsavings schemes such as the public provident fund, oneto fiveyear time deposits, fiveyear recurring deposits, the senior citizens scheme Kisan Vikas Patra and the Sukanya Samriddhi scheme for the AprilJune quarter,amove that could lead to banks cutting their deposit rates as well.
Of the 12 small savings schemes, the Centre cut the rates by 0.1 percentage point over those in the JanuaryMarch quarter for 11 of them, leaving out the savings deposit, which was maintained at 4 per cent. Since April last year, the interest rates for all small savings schemes have been recalibrated onaquarterly basis.
“To bring such rates somewhat closer to market rates, the government has decided to effectareduction of 0.1 percentage point (10 basis points) in interest rates across the board in all the schemes, except the Post Office Savings Account, which has been left untouched,” the finance ministry said inastatement. “Small savings schemes will continue to be attractive as some of them enjoy income tax benefits and additional interest rate spreads,” it said.Anotification said that investments in the public provident fund (PPF) scheme would fetchalower annual rate of 7.9 per cent, the same as the fiveyear National Savings Certificate.
The existing rate for these two schemes is 8 per cent.
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) investments will yield 7.6 per cent and mature in 112 months.
The one for girl child savings, the Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme, will offer 8.4 per cent annually, from 8.5 per cent at present, while it will be the same at 8.4 per cent for the fiveyear Senior Citizens Savings Scheme, on which interest is paid quarterly.
Term deposits of onefive years will earnalower 6.97.7 per cent, which will be paid quarterly, while the fiveyear recurring deposit has been pegged lower at 7.2 per cent.
The rates of small savings schemes have been linked to government bond yields since the quarterly revision began.
A notification said that investments in the PPF scheme would fetchalower annual rate of 7.9%
Business Standard New Delhi,01th April 2017

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...

E tailers global warehouses may come under tax net

E tailers  global warehouses may come under tax net Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy,  Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India  once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)  comes into force. BEPS refers to the reporting framework mooted by the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) and signed by over 100 countries, including India, to  prevent exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules to shift profits by multinational  companies (MNCs) artificially to low-tax regimes. The representatives of 68 countries on June 7 this year signed an agreement (MLI) in Paris  to amend their tax treaties to bring them in alignment with measures to prevent BEPS.  However, there is still time for synchronising tax treaties with the multilateral  instrument. India has submitte...