Interest rates on small savings schemes cut by 0.1 pc

Interest rates on small savings schemes have been reduced marginally by 0.1 per cent for the October-December quarter of 2016-17, leading to lower returns on Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patra, Sukanya Samriddhi Account, among others.
The popular Public Provident Fund will fetch interest rate of 8 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal as against 8.1 per cent in the previous three-months period.
Interest rate on Kisan Vikas Patra has been brought down to 7.7 per cent from 7.8 per cent. As a result the KVP will now mature in 112 months instead of 110 months.

Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on quarterly basis. Accordingly, the Finance Ministry today notified the rates of interest on various schemes for October-December period of 2016-17.
The rate of interest for the third quarter for 5-Year Senior Citizens Savings Scheme and 5-Year National Savings Certificate has been reduced to 8.5 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.
The Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme, for girl child, will now fetch 8.5 per cent interest rate. It was 8.6 per cent in July-September quarter.

Interest rate on 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year time deposits too have been reduced by 0.1 per cent.

Depositors will get an interest rate of 7.3 on five-year recurring deposit during the quarter beginning October 1 as against 7.4 per cent they were getting in the second quarter.
The interest rate on savings deposit has, however, been kept unchanged at 4 per cent.