Islamabad April 9 2023: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) on Friday increased profit rates on all national savings schemes up to 5 percent to increase direct borrowing from public.
The new rates will apply to deposits and investments made with effect from April 10 2023. The rates, the highest in more than a decade, have been increased after the State Bank of Pakistan raised its key interest rate and yields on Treasury bills jumped to around 22 percent earlier this week.
According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Finance, the CDNS has increased the profit rate on the Defence Saving Certificates by 261 basis points to 14.87 percent. The rate was 9.29 percent in May last year.
Likewise, the returns on Behbood Savings Certificates, Pensioners’ Benefit Accounts and Shuhada Family Welfare Accounts have been raised by 264 basis points to 16.56 percent.
The return on Regular Income Certificates has been raised to 12.84 percent of total investment, an increase of 24 basis points.
The profit rates on the three-year Special Saving Certificates and Special Savings Account was increased by over 400 basis points to 17 percent for the first five profits and to 17.8 percent for the sixth profit. The average return for this category now stands at 17.13 percent compared to 13.1 percent previously.
The return on Saving Accounts (running accounts) has been increased by 400 basis points to 18.5 percent.
On the other hand, the return on Short-Term Savings Certificate has been raised to 19.92 percent, 19.64 percent and 19.82 percent for 3-Month, 6-month and 12-month tenors, respectively, after an increase of about 392, 360 and 368 basis points.
The CDNS has dispatched the revised rate sheets to all the regional offices with instructions that the existing stock of blank special savings certificates, regular income certificates and defence saving certificates would now be issued at new rates from April 10.
The rates of national savings schemes are announced every two months and are linked to cut-off yields of long-term Pakistan Investment Bonds.
