Consider alternative instruments, Jaitley urges investors

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday made a case for investment into alternative instruments instead of bank deposits for better returns.

"The conventional deposit rate, the lending rates, are very low, but you have very powerful alternative instruments, in which if you invest, you can earn a lot higher," he said here at the launch of state-run State Bank of India's wealth management offering SBI Exclusif.

"That is how pension funds and sovereign funds are surviving and doing extremely well the world over," he added.

Noting the convention was that that bank deposits or other government schemes were probably the safest and best investment, Jaitley said: "It was certainly safe, but then the whole concept of economic system, banking system paid high rate of interest for those deposits were no longer relevant. And world over people have successfully experimented it."

Over the last few years as Indian economy expanded and India realised that wealth generation is a good thing, he said.

"In India now as that opportunity expands, as a number of people with additional resources increases, you need a set of competent managers to manage the resources," he added.

The activity of wealth management products was long overdue and in fact delayed as India did not have many high net worth individuals, Jaitley said.

There is an additional section of people who no longer are in active service but they are trying to live a respectable future on the strength of strength of savings, he said.

--IANS

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