Special Correspondent :
The Department of National Savings (DNS) has moved forward to prepare a comprehensive database for the subscribers of the National Savings Certificates (NSCs) in an effort to prevent NSC’s over subscription by different group of people.
It has also planned to bring all the savings outlets under an integrated ICT infrastructure (automation) to provide safe, secure, reliable and easily accessible real time services to the NSC subscribers.
The Department will hold an urgent meeting on May 15 to fix strategies in this regard.
Director General of DNS Samsunnahar Begum will preside over the meeting to be held at the Department’s headquarters in Dhaka.
“The meeting will focus on creating strategies and plans on the above mention subjects,” a senior DNS official told The New Nation yesterday, asking not to be named.
He said the department came up with the project to plug loopholes in NSC subscription.
“NSC is meant for defined groups of people with ceiling in investment. But in reality ineligible people and institutional investors are also making investment in NSC schemes since their interest rates are high,” said the official, adding, ” Even, they are buying savings certificates from multiple outlets beyond their allowed investment limit.”
The official further said this is happening in absence of a comprehensive database of the NSC subscribers. Besides, such a malpractice has posed a serious operational risk for the government’s savings schemes.
“Once the subscribers database and ICT integration is completed, it will plug the loopholes in the existing system. None will be able to exceed the investment limit once the new system put in place. It will also ensure benefit of the target group,” he added.
According to him, the database will also be integrated with the NID system.
When asked, the official said that the government has no plan to reduce interest rates of savings certificates despite their record sale and allegation of over subscription by the wealthy people in the society.
Earlier, a finance ministry report says that in addition to lower middle-income, middle-income families and pensioners, institutional buyers are also in possession of large volumes of savings certificates. Even some public and private banks have bought massive amounts of savings certificates due to their high yield.
Currently, the government offers interest at the rates between 11.04 per cent and 11.76 per cent for investment in savings instruments while interest rates in bank deposit are between 7 per cent and 8 per cent.
According to the NSD, the net sales of savings certificates stood at Tk 52,417 crore in the fiscal year 2016-17 against the government’s target of Tk 45,000 crore for the year.
