Over Rs 1.9 lakh cr in small savings a/cs in post offices: Govt

Over Rs 1.9 lakh crore was deposited in 26.01 crore operational small savings accounts in post offices at the end of March 31, 2012, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot has said.

"The gross deposit of small savings scheme in post offices declined in the financial year 2011-12 as compared to the year 2010-11," Pilot said in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
The decline is, among other things, due to investors choosing alternative instruments for effecting savings, he added.

Pilot said 2,84,10,593 accounts were closed by customers during financial year 2011-12.
"There were 26,01,69,920 operational small savings accounts in the post offices as on March 31, 2012 and the amount deposited therein up to the end of March 2012 was Rs 1,90,732.73 crore," he said.

Pilot said the government has taken a number of initiatives to make the small saving schemes more attractive which include an increase in rate of interest on post office savings account (POSA) to 4 per cent from 3.5 per cent.

Also, the ceiling of maximum balance in POSA, which was one lakh for single account and two lakh for joint account, has been removed.

He said the maturity period for monthly income scheme (MIS) and national savings certificate (NSC) has been reduced from six years to five years, while a new NSC instrument, with maturity period of 10 years, has been introduced.

"The annual ceiling on investment under Public Provident Fund (PPF) scheme has been increased from Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh," he added.