Rush for earnings from savings certificates after Eid break
After nine days of Eid holidays, Bangladesh Bank yesterday saw an unprecedented rush for savings certificate interest collection at its Motijheel office.
"A huge number of investors flocked to the BB to receive the interest they earned on monthly maturity," said Subhankar Saha, the central bank's executive director and spokesman.
Saha said many investments matured on July 1, but investors did not receive their benefits until yesterday, because of the Eid break.
Although an electronic fund transfer system is available to get the monthly interest accrued on investments, many investors are not taking the benefit.
"Many are not tech-savvy while others prefer to go to the central bank directly to collect their interest income in their accounts," he said.
Investments in government savings schemes have become lucrative as interest paid on these tools are far higher than the market rates.
Presently, the five-year Poribar Sanchayapatra (family savings certificate) offers an interest rate of 11.52 percent, which is 11.76 percent for the five-year Pensioner Sanchayapatra. On the other hand, banks offer only around 6 percent on fixed deposits.
Analysts including the chief economist of the central bank have criticised the government for offering much higher benefits on savings tools than the market rates. They said the difference in rates is distorting the market.
Net sales of savings certificates stood at over Tk 30,092 crore in the first 11 months of the just concluded fiscal year, which was double the government's annual target, according to BB data.
At the end of May, total outstanding investment in savings schemes was Tk 135,229 crore.
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