Friday, March 7, 2008

Decline in collection in postal saving schemes

Over the past two years the postal saving schemes are seeing decline in collection. The postal saving schemes are loosing out to other investment plans see this the finance minister without delaying has taken timely steps of extending income-tax benefits to some more of these schemes as part of the Budget proposals.

For instance, the deposits in the National Savings Scheme have fallen from Rs 571 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 317 crore in 2006-07. The Senior Citizens Savings Scheme is down from Rs 8,818 crore to Rs 7,238 crore during the corresponding period.

However the biggest attrition of deposits has been from Monthly Income schemes which have decreased by almost 50 percent from Rs 48,691 crore in 2004-05 t0 Rs 20,812 crore. Only the Public Provident Fund scheme has seen a rise in collection from Rs 3,112 crore to Rs 3,797 crore. Even the Kisan Vikas Patra has seen a decline by Rs 5,781 crore.

In order to popularize the postal schemes in the light of competition from the private financial sector, the government officials have been taking steps by launching campaigns through media and providing training to agencies involved in mobilizing collection in Small Savings Schemes.

Following this the Department of Post has also increased the maximum deposit ceiling of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh under the monthly income account to Rs 4.5 lakh and Rs 9 lakh for single and joint account, respectively.

The restriction on opening of more than one account in a month under the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme has been removed.

Bonus at the rate of 5 per cent on the deposits made under the post office monthly income account scheme has been reintroduced.