Investment opportunities and tax returns

Eid Mubarak to all my readers and hope you enjoyed the Holy Month of Ramadan as much as I did.
With Banks and NBFIs (Non Banking Financial Institutions) going through a phase of excess liquidity and decrease in lending, obviously the return on Fixed Deposits dropped drastically. This affected a vast majority of people, mainly retired people whose main source of earning was from the return on these investments. The share market is always an option, but one is wary of it despite better returns after the recent pasts' debacle -- needless to say I was also a victim!

Recently one of my Fixed Deposits had matured and I realised the new rate I would get was much lower than my last rate and this would affect my monthly earning. I started looking around for better options.
The Relationship Manager of the NBFI where I have most of my investments suggested 'Poribar Sanchayapatra' also known as Family Sanchayapatra. It is a Bangladesh Government bond originally only available to women, but now men over sixty-five years can also avail of it.

At the moment this is the best Government Savings Instrument giving a much higher return than other savings instruments. The maximum amount an individual can invest is Taka forty-five lacs for a tenure of five years - the current rate of interest is 13.45% (subject to change) and the return is on a monthly basis. Mind you, once you have purchased these bonds, the rate applied at that point will remain the same for 5 years. Please visit your bank manager and he will assist you with all the formalities required.

I have learnt over the years to always look around for better deals, stay in constant touch with your bank managers and ask questions. There are so many new products we are not aware of and no one is going to volunteer them to you unless you take an interest yourself. We need to maintain our standard of living and we can only do that by being informed.

It is also the time of the year where we file our tax returns – please remember to keep aside money to do this. Over the year we tend to forget this and it comes as a shock when our tax lawyer announces the amount we need to pay! Keep aside a certain amount every month in a separate account; we are all law-abiding taxpaying citizens and it becomes easy if you have made provisions for it!  It is ironic but the more you earn the more tax you need to pay.