Govt Hikes Interest Rates For Small Savings Schemes For April-June 2023 Quarter

However, the interest rates on PPF has been left unchanged at 7.1 per cent while the post office savings deposit stands at 4 per cent

The Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme will see a higher rate of interest, up from the existing 7.6 per cent to 8 per cent. ( Image Source :Getty )

On expected lines, the central government on Friday hiked interest rates across all small savings schemes for the April-June 2023 quarter, according to a release by the Department of Economic Affairs. However, the government didn’t raise interest rates of post office savings deposit and the Public Provident Fund (PPF) this time. The interest rate on PPF has been left unchanged at 7.1 per cent while the post office savings deposit stands at 4 per cent.

According to the release, the interest rate on the National Savings Certificate (NSC) has been hiked from 7 per cent for the January – March 2023 quarter to 7.7 per cent for the April – June 2023 quarter.

Interest rates on all post office term deposits (with maturities of 1,2,3, and 5 years) have been increased by 10 to 50 basis points. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point. The sharpest hike has been introduced for the 5-year post office term deposit, from 7 per cent for the January – March 2023 quarter to 7.5 per cent for the April-June 2023 quarter.

The Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme also will see a higher rate of interest, up from the existing 7.6 per cent to 8 per cent.

The interest rate on the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme has been raised by 20 basis points from 8 per cent for the January-March 2023 quarter to 8.2 per cent for the April-June 2023 quarter.

To benefit senior citizens, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raised the maximum deposit limit for this scheme from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh in the Union Budget 2023.

For the Monthly Income Account Scheme, the interest rate has been hiked by 30 basis points from 7.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent. The maximum deposit limit for this scheme too was raised in the Budget, from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh for single accounts and from Rs 9 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for joint accounts.

The interest rates on these schemes are reviewed every quarter. In the last quarterly review on December 30, 2022, the interest rates on many of these schemes were hiked by as much as 20 – 110 basis points. This had been preceded by a modest hike across a few schemes in the September 29, 2022 review.