Interest rate small savings schemes unchanged for Q1FY23

New Delhi, March 31 (FN Representative) The government has kept the rate of interests on various small savings schemes such as Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate and Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme unchanged for April-June quarter (Q1) of FY23. “The rate of interest on various small savings schemes for the first quarter of financial year 2022-23 starting from 1st April, 2022 and ending on 30th June, 2022 shall remain unchanged from the current rates applicable for the fourth quarter (1st January, 2022 to 31st March, 2022) of FY 2021-22,” Finance Ministry said in a notification on Thursday. Interestrate on small savings is reviewed every quarter. The government has kept the interest rate on small savings schemes steady for the last nine quarters.

Continuing with the current interest rate, PPF would fetch an annual interest rate of 7.1% while Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana will earn 7.6% in the coming quarter. National Savings Certificate (NSC) will continue to earn 6.8% interest rate in the first quarter of coming fiscal while five-year senior citizens’ savings scheme will carry an interest rate of 7.4%. “With the rise in Gsec yields over the last three months, as well as the inching up of deposit rates of banks, we had foreseen a small probability of the small savings rates being revised upwards for the coming quarter. We expect a shallow rate hike cycle to commence in mid 2022, with 50 bps of repo hikes over August-October 2022, which may subsequently be mirrored in small savings rates being hiked,” said ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar.