Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley can defend his decision to cut interest rates on the state run schemes, including the Public Provident Fund, the salaried class who invested their hard earned money in such savings scheme will now feel the pinch and may not intend to deposit in Post offices. The rich is becoming richer and the salaried class is the sufferer all the time. After roll back on tax on EPF proceeds, the Government has reduced the interest rate of PPF from 8.7% to 8.1%. In addition to that there is also cut on most small saving schemes, including one for girl child and senior citizen. The rationale is that the cut in small savings interest rate would help economy eventually move to lower overall interest rate regime, thereby paving way for economic growth. Thus, the unkind interest cuts will affect the salaried class. After giving peanut of benefit to salaried class, slowly and steadily the benefits already offered are being withdrawn slowly.
Nickil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
