Low deposit rates, dull business swell NSCs investment

Amount surpasses Tk 24,000cr in 10 months

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Investment in national savings certificates and bonds surpassed Tk 24,000 crore in 10 months of the current financial year 2014-15 as people invested heavily in the NSCs due to low bank deposit rates and sluggish business climate.
According to the Directorate of National Savings data to be released today, the net investment in the savings instruments increased by 176.38 per cent to Tk 24,141.09 crore in July-April compared with that of Tk 8,734.50 crore in the same period of the last financial year.
The previous highest of the net investment in the savings tools was Tk 11,707.31 crore in the FY14, but the net investment of Tk 13,135 crore in the first half of the FY15 broke the record.
The net investment in the NSCs crossed its annual target in just four months in this fiscal year as the figure stood at Tk 9,077.60 crore in the period against the fiscal year’s target of Tk 9,056 crore.
Due to a significant increase in investment trend in the NSCs, the government has recently cut the rate of interest by around 2 per cent on its different savings tools to curb the investment, a DNS official told New Age on Tuesday.
The higher investment in the NSCs has forced the government to face huge idle fund with its account in recent months, he said.
The excess fund is now more than 7,000 crore with the government account which compelled it (government) to cut the interest rate on the tools, he said.
A BB official said that the government also postponed the auction for Treasury bond this month to get relief from the idle fund meaning that it would not take any loan from the banking sector by issuing the tool, he said.
The government faced a pressure of interest payment to the clients who invested in the NSCs in the recent years as the interest rate on the savings tools was between 12.59 per cent and 13.45 per cent before the latest government decision, he said.
Banks are now giving maximum 7 per cent to 9 per cent interest to their clients for the fixed deposit schemes that encouraged the clients to invest in the NSCs.
The BB official said that the government had also faced a huge investment till third week of this month as it (government) had decreased rate on the savings tools on May 23.
He said that investment on the savings tools might be decreased at the beginning of June due to the lower rate of interest.
The rate of interest on both lending and deposit products of the banks may decrease in the coming months due to the lower interest rate on the government savings tools, he said.
The latest DNS data showed that savings instruments worth Tk 35,174.13 crore were sold through banks, national savings bureaus and post offices between July and April of the FY15.

Source: New Age