Interest rate on small savings, PPF lowered by 0.1%

The govt also lowered the rate on other small savings schemes with maturity of two years or more by 10 basis points

The government today reduced the interest rate on Public Provident Fund (PPF) from 8.8% to 8.7%. The new rate will come into effect from April 1.

It also lowered the rate on other small savings schemes with maturity of two years or more by 10 basis points. This includes fixed deposit (FD) and recurring deposit (RD) as well as National Savings Certificates (NSC).

A one-year time deposit will now fetch the investors an interest at the rate of 8.2%, against 8.3% earlier. Five-year NSC and 10-year NSC will give a rate of return of 8.5% and 8.9%, respectively. Senior citizens savings scheme (SCSS) will offer the highest rate of interest at 9.2%.

Interest rate on savings deposit and one-year term deposit remains unchanged at 4% and 8.2%, respectively.

Based on the decisions taken by the government on the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee for Comprehensive Review of National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), the interest rates for small saving schemes are to be notified every financial year, before April 1 of that year.

Before the alignment of interest rate on such schemes with government securities in 2011, an interest rate of 8% was offered on NSC.

Scheme	Rate of Interest w.e.f. 01.04.2012	Rate of Interest w.e.f. 01.04.2013
1	2	3
Savings Deposit	4.0	4.0
1 Year Time Deposit	8.2	8.2
2 Year Time Deposit	8.3	8.2
3 Year Time Deposit	8.4	8.3
5 Year Time Deposit	8.5	8.4
5 Year Recurring Deposit	8.4	8.3
5 Year SCSS	9.3	9.2
5 Year MIS	8.5	8.4
5 Year NSC	8.6	8.5
10 Year NSC	8.9	8.8
PPF	8.8	8.7