National Savings directorate cuts certificate rates by 1%

ISLAMABAD: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) on Tuesday announced a 1% cut in the interest rate on savings certificates investment due to lower rates of the Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIB), effective June 2, 2020.

“The CDNS interest rates are linked with the policy of PIB, set by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP),” a senior CDNS official told APP.

The CDNS official said the rates of return on the Behbood Savings Certificates (BSC), Pensioner Benefit Accounts (PBA), and Shuhada Family Welfare Account were reduced from 10.32% to 9.84%.

The official said the profit rates on Defense Savings Certificates (DSC) and Regular Income Certificates were slashed from 8.54% to 8.05% and from 8.28% to 7.44%, respectively, as per the current market situation.

The CDNS representative added that the profit rate on Special Savings Certificates (Registered) / Accounts was also cut on all three categories of certificates — 8% to 7.1% for first to fifth profit, 8.6% to 7.4% for the sixth profit, and 8.1% to 7.15% on average.

The senior official said the Short-Term Savings Certificates profit rates were revised down on different categories on a month-on-month basis; for three- and six-month certificates, the rates were cut from 7.8% to 7.72% and 7.5% to 7.36%, respectively, but on the 12-month ones, it was raised from 6.95% to 7.3%.

The official mentioned that the profit rates on Savings Account (SA) had also been reduced from 7% to 6.5%, as decided by the latest meeting held in finance ministry.

In response to another question, the official said the CDNS did not accept institutional investment but only individual ones were encouraged to deposit for saving in the National Savings.