NEW DELHI, April 1 (Xinhua) -- India's federal finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Thursday said steep cuts on interest rates on small savings schemes, announced last evening, were issued by "oversight" and stand withdrawn.
The rate cuts issued by the ministry of finance on Wednesday evening in schemes ranging from the National Savings Certificates (NSC) and Public Provident Fund (PPF), would have hurt millions of middle class depositors.
"Interest rates of small savings schemes of the government of India shall continue to be at the rates which existed in the last quarter of 2020-2021, i.e., rates that prevailed as of March 2021. Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn," Sitharaman wrote on social media.
If new tax rates order would have been implemented, this would have been the second slash on small savings within a year and one that would have reduced interest rates to a more than four-decade low.
In the April-June quarter of 2020-21, the government had cut rates of small savings schemes by 0.70-1.4 percent.
The cuts would have also impacted schemes for the girl child and the elderly. Enditem
