West Bengal to launch its own savings scheme in October

The West Bengal government  will its own savings scheme, christened as the 3S-Safe, Saving Scheme, by October.

The scheme, which will formally be launched in October, was mooted by the West Bengal government in April to provide small investors a safe investment option in the aftermath of the Saradha scam.

A person can invest between Rs 1000 to Rs 1 lakh individually, and up to Rs 5 lakh with family, in the scheme, which will be managed by the West Bengal Financial Development Corporation (WBIFDC), which is registered as a deposit-taking non banking finance company (NBFC).

With a lock-in period of three months, the scheme would have investment tenure between one to five years, said Mamata Banerjee, chief minister, West Bengal.

The plan will be implemented by four banks—State Bank of India, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank and United Bank of India.

Banerjee did not spell out additional incentives that the scheme will offer to investors, but said, the interest rates would be at par with the prevailing bank interest rates.

“We are planning to tag this savings scheme with some insurance product. We will either tie-up with some government or private insurance scheme,” said Abhirup Sarkar, Chairman, WBIDFC.  

The government is planning to engage about 24000 agents employed for garnering small  savings through post offices for doorstep banking under the scheme.

Earlier, the West Bengal government had announced a Rs 500 crore fund to compensate investors of the Saradha group.