Citing ‘oversight’, Sitharaman rolls back cut in interest rates

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government will roll back a steep interest rate cut on small saving schemes such as PPF and NSC — saying it was an oversight, a move being seen as an attempt by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to contain the fallout of a decision hitting the common man in the ongoing elections in West Bengal, Assam and three other states.

While the government routinely announces interest rates for small saving schemes at the end of every quarter, Wednesday’s decision to cut interest rate by up to 1.1 per cent across various small savings schemes, including the National Savings Certificates (NSC) and Public Provident Fund (PPF), came a day before the second phase of polling in West Bengal including the political hotbed Nandigram, from where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting.

The decision to roll back citing “oversight” was taken hours after announcing the steepest cut in the rate on small savings schemes.”Interest rates of small savings schemes of GoI shall continue to be at the rates which existed in the last quarter of 2020-2021, ie, rates that prevailed as of March 2021. Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn,” Sitharaman said in an early morning tweet.