On Friday, the government decided not to raise the interest rates on a number of small savings plans for the first quarter of the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on April 1, 2024.

The Ministry of Finance has released a notification regarding this.

"The rates of interest on various small savings schemes for the first quarter of FY 2024-25, starting from April 1, 2024, and ending on June 30, 2024, shall remain unchanged from those notified for the fourth quarter (January 1, 2024, to March 31, 2024) of FY 2023-24," the notice stated.

Interest rates on deposits made under the Sukanya Samriddhi scheme would be 8.2%, while rates on term deposits with a three-year duration would stay at 7.1%.

Popular PPF and savings account interest rates have also been kept at 4.7 percent and 4%, respectively. The Kisan Vikas Patra investments have a 7.5% interest rate and a 115-month maturity period.

For the period of April 1–June 30, 2024, the interest rate on the National Savings Certificate (NSC) will stay at 7.7%. Similar to this quarter, investors will earn 7.4% interest rate on the Monthly Income Scheme.

Every quarter, the government announces the interest rates on small savings plans, which are mostly run by post offices.

Since May 2022, the Reserve Bank of India has increased the benchmark lending rate by 2.5 percent to 6.5 percent, which has caused banks to increase their deposit interest rates as well.

But in the five meetings that the Monetary Policy Committee has held since February of this year, the RBI has kept the policy rate unchanged.