Govt hikes interest rates for various small savings

New Delhi, Dec 30 (Agency) The government on Friday raised interest rates for various small savings schemes for January-March quarter of the current financial year. The interest rate on provident fund schemes, however, remains unchanged. As per the notification issued by the Finance Ministry, the interest rates of schemes like Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, Monthly Income Savings Scheme, National Savings Certificate, Kisan Vikas Patra and all post office time deposits have been increased.

However, the interest rates of Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samridhhi Yojana have been left unchanged. Now Senior Citizen Savings Scheme will fetch 8 per cent rate of interest instead of 7.6 percent, Monthly Income Account Scheme will fetch 7.1 per cent instead of 6.7 per cent and Kisan Vikas Patra will mature in 120 months instead of 123 months, the notification said. The Government revises the interest rates on small savings schemes every quarter. The government had revised the interest rates of certain small savings schemes in the previous quarter.