The Finance Ministry on Thursday lowered the returns on some small saving schemes such as the public provident fund for the third quarter of the fiscal.

The interest rate on the PPF and the five year National Savings Certificate (NSC) has been lowered to 8 per cent for the October to December quarter as against the earlier rate of 8.1 per cent.

“These are the rates of interest on various small savings schemes for the third quarter of the financial year 2016-17 from October 1 to December 31, on the basis of interest compounding or payment built into the schemes,” said the Finance Ministry in a memorandum.

This is in line with the government decision to lower the return on small savings in line with the yields of government securities.

Similarly, the return on the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) has been reduced to 7.7 per cent from 7.8 per cent. However, this is applicable on KVP with a maturity of 112 months as against the earlier 110 months.

The return on the five year monthly income account scheme has also been lowered to 7.7 per cent from 7.8 per cent.

Subscribers will now earn an interest of 8.5 per cent in the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme as against 8.6 per cent interest in the current quarter.

The return on the five year Senior Citizen Scheme has also been cut to 8.5 per cent from 8.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the 7.4 per cent return on the five year time deposit and the three year recurring deposit has also been lowered to 7.3 per cent.

However, the interest rate on the savings deposit has been retained at 4 per cent.

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