The Minister of State for
Communications & Information Technology Sh Sachin Pilot
informed the Lok Sabhayesterday that the gross deposit of Small
Savings Scheme in Post Offices declined in the financial year 2011-12
as compared to the year 2010-11.
The decline of gross deposit in small savings schemes is, among other things,
due to investor’s choice of alternative instruments for effecting savings. The
Government has taken following measures to make the small saving schemes more
attractive:-
1. The rate of
interest on Post Office Savings Account (POSA) has been increased from 3.5% to
4%. The ceiling of maximum balance in POSA 1 lakh in single
account and 2 lakh in joint account) has been removed.
2. The maturity period
for Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) has been
reduced from 6 years to 5 years.
3. A new NSC
instrument, with maturity period of 10 years, has been introduced.
4. The annual ceiling
on investment under Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme has been increased from
` 70,000 to ` 1lakh.
5. Liquidity of Post
Office Time Deposit (POTD) – 1, 2, 3 & 5 years – has been improved by
allowing pre-mature withdrawal at a rate of interest 1% less than the time
deposits of comparable maturity. For pre-mature withdrawals between 6-12
months of investment, Post Office Savings Account (POSA) rate of
interest has been allowed.
6.
Central and State Governments take various measures from time to time to
promote and popularise small saving scheme through print and
electronic media as well as by holding seminars, meetings and providing
training to the various agencies involved in mobilising deposits
under various small savings schemes. The rate of interest on Small Savings
Schemes has been aligned with Government-Security rates of similar maturity
with a spread of 25 basis points (bps) in all schemes except 10 Years National
Savings Certificates (IX-Issue) and Sr. Citizens Savings Scheme where the
spread of 50 bps and 100 bps has been given respectively (100 bps are equal to
1%). Interest rate for every financial year will now be notified before 1st April
of that year.
There were 26,01,69,920 number of operational small savings
accounts in the Post Offices as on 31.03.2012 and the amount
deposited therein upto the end of March 2012
was Rs. 190732.73 crore . 2,84,10,593 accounts
were closed by customers during financial year 2011-12. *
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