The government will increase the interest rates of the savings certificates to attract higher investment and make up low revenue incomes.
The Internal Resources Division took the decisions at a meeting on Tuesday, said its officials.
A Finance Division committee had been asked to fix the new rates, added the officials.
The Department of National Savings operates 11 types of savings certificates and bonds with interest rates varying between 6.5 and 12 per cent.
Interest rates of the popular instruments like Paribar Sanchayapatra and Five Year Bangladesh Sanchayapatra, however, have stuck at around 9 per cent, going below the rates offered by commercial banks for depositors with the hike in interest rates by Bangladesh Bank for the past six months.
The officials said that the recent decisions would enable the government to refix the interest rates based on market, attracting investors.
Although Tk 15,000 crore incomes have been projected to come from the savings certificates in FY25, the interim government, formed after the ouster of the Awami League regime, has decided to take more loans from the savings department, the聽 government鈥檚 main non-banking income source.
Besides, the decisions will help reduce the pressure on borrowing from the banking sources to make up the revenue losses.
Revenue incomes in the first two months of FY25 by the National Board of Revenue, which has been missing the annual target for the past 12 years, have been 11 per cent less than the income made during the same period of FY24.
The revenue board has been given the annual target at 4.8 lakh crore, while loans from the bank have been projected at 1.37 lakh crore to meet the budget deficit of 4.6 per cent.
The Internal Resources Division meeting also decided to send the monthly interest incomes to accounts of policyholders of the Pensioner Sanchayapatra.
Besides, all types of schemes will be reinvested automatically at the end of tenure, said the division officials.
The officials said that net sales of national savings certificates rebounded to Tk 2,187 crore in July, after a sharp negative balance of Tk 3,381 crore in June.
In FY24, net national savings certificates sales had largely been negative due to soaring inflation, with the sales hitting negative Tk 21,124 crore, compared with negative Tk 3,295 crore in FY23.
In FY16, the government sold net national savings certificates at Tk 33,689 crore, and in FY17, the decade highest Tk 52,417 crore.聽聽