The net investment in national savings certificates in the first eight months of the current financial year stood at only 542.76 crore, or 7.33 per cent of the annual target, as clients continued to encash their certificates prematurely.
Officials of the Directorate of National Savings told New Age on Monday that the government might miss its annual target of Tk 7,400-crore net investment in the savings certificates for the FY 2012-13 if the premature encashment continued in the coming months.
According to the DNS data released on Monday, the savings certificates worth Tk 15,753.91 crore were sold during the first eight months of FY 2012-13. But, in the same period the government paid Tk 15,211.14 crore in capital money to the investors.
So, the net investment stood at Tk 542.76 crore as of February 28, 2013, the data showed.
A DNS official said the selling in savings certificates and bonds had increased by 46.66 per cent in the first eight months of this financial year from that of the corresponding period in FY 2011-12.
But, a huge amount of premature encashment hit the net investment in the savings tools, he said.
The DNS data showed that the selling in savings tools had stood at Tk 15,753.91 crore in July to February of this financial year from Tk 10,741.42 crore during the same period of FY 2011-12.
The DNS official said that the net investment had decreased because of a trend of premature encashment of the instruments by the clients as they switched from one type of instrument to other to get better rate of interest.
The rate of interest for family savings certificates is 13.45 per cent, while that for five-year Bangladesh savings instrument and pensioners’ savings instrument is 13.19 per cent.
The official said that majority of the commercial banks were reluctant to encourage their clients to invest in the savings instruments as they deemed that the instruments were competitors against their savings products.
‘We have received allegations from a number of clients that banks sometimes refused to provide them with the sales form of the instruments,’ he said.
A BB official said that the decreasing trend in the net investment in the savings bonds and certificates would force the government to go for higher borrowing from the banking sector.
The government set a target of borrowing Tk 23,000 crore from the banking system for the FY 2012-13.
The official said, ‘The government borrowing declined significantly in the first eight months, but the figure has suddenly jumped this month. The government is now giving more attention to spend its budget for annual development programme to fulfil its election commitment.’
According to the latest BB data, the government borrowed Tk 2,958 crore in just 10 days between March 3 and March 12 from the banking source.
The government’s borrowing from the banking system stood at Tk 6,427.76 crore on March 3 and the figure went up to Tk 9,425.76 crore on March 12. (Source)
