ISLAMABAD: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has achieved a collection net target of Rs185 billion of the current fiscal year (FY) by May 15, 2019-20.
The CDNS has set Rs352 billion annual collection target for the year 2019-20 as compared to Rs324 billion for the previous year 2018-19 to enhance savings and promote saving culture in the country, senior official of CDNS told APP here the other day. The directorate has also revised and increased the gross target of Rs1,570 billion for fiscal year 2019-20, he said.
Replying to a question, he said the CDNS had collected Rs410 billion by June 30, exceeding the target of Rs324 billion set for the year while during the preceding year of 2017-18, the CDNS collected Rs155 billion.The total savings held by the CDNS stood at Rs1,150 billion by June 30, while the directorate had Rs774 billion savings by the same date, a year ago, he said.
The senior official said due to the rationalisation of CDNS certificates’ rates, the directorate had collected more savings than expected, therefore the CDNS revised its target upward from Rs224 billion to 324 billion for the FY 2018-19. The CDNS revised its target upward from Rs224 billion to Rs324 billion for the FY 2018-19. He said the investors of Rs40,000 prize bonds had withdrawn Rs254 billion by April 25, out of overall reserve of Rs258 billion investments in the CDNS in these prize bonds. After the decision taken by the federal government, the CDNS had discontinued the specific bond by June 24, 2019, he said.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had directed that national prize bonds worth Rs40,000 denominations should not be sold after June 24, and would not be encashed or redeemed after May 31, 2020. The bond holders had been given the option of either replacing them with Special Savings Certificates (SSC) or Defence Saving Certificates (DSC), premium prize bonds through SBP field offices or National Bank of Pakistan, United Bank, Habib Bank, Bank Alfalah, and Allied Bank or encash them at the face value.
The National Savings was expecting that the total amount to be drawn by the investors would be around to Rs215 billion by end of December 2019, out of which Rs40 billion were drawn in October and Rs112 billion in two months November and December of the same year, he informed.
Replying to a question, he said the CDNS had decided not to change the rates of different certificates for March, 2020 to promote the culture of savings in the country. The CDNS had already increased rates on various savings certificates aimed at persuading the customers to invest with CDNS.
“In the previous board meeting the CDNS notified the upward revision in the profit rates for various saving certificates with effect from November 1, 2019, encouraging people to invest in various schemes of the Directorate,” he said. The official was of the view that the upward revision of these certificates would generate more revenues that could be utilized as budgetary support by the government to overcome budget deficit problems.
