Rs 40,000 Bond Holders Encash Bonds Worth Rs 65 Billion

The investors holding Rs 40,000 prize bonds have en-cashed Rs 65 billion out of total stock of Rs 259 billion after the federal government decision to discontinue the Rs. 40,000 prize bonds, a senior official of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) said on Thursday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Aug, 2019 ):The investors holding Rs 40,000 prize bonds have en-cashed Rs 65 billion out of total stock of Rs 259 billion after the federal government decision to discontinue the Rs. 40,000 prize bonds, a senior official of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) said on Thursday.

Talking to APP, he hoped that by end of this month, further Rs 40 billion would be en-cashed by the bond holders.

He said the value of remaining prize bonds which are yet to be en-cashed is Rs 194 billion.

The government has frozen the prize bonds of Rs 40,000 through a notification issued by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in which all commercial banks were directed to stop selling Rs40, 000 prize bonds from June 24 onwards.

According to the notification the SBP directed that national Prize Bonds worth of Rs 40, 000 denominations shall not be sold after June 24, and will not be en-cashed or redeemed after March 31, 2020.

The scheme of Rs 40,000 bonds is owned by the CDNS and is being operated through the SBP, the official said.

The bond holders have 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 Ltd, and Allied Bank or encash them at the face value.

Replying to question, he said the CDNS has achieved a net target of Rs 22 billion by August 20, of current fiscal years 2019-20.

Replying to a question, he said that CDNS had collected Rs 410 billion by June 30, 2019 exceeding the target of Rs 324 billion set for the year while during the preceding year of 2017-18, CDNS collected Rs155 billion.

The total savings held by the CDNS stood at Rs 1,150 billion by June 30, while the directorate had Rs 774 billion savings by the same date, a year ago, he said.

He said that due to the rationalization of CDNS certificates' rates, the directorate had collected more savings than expected; therefore CDNS revised its target upward from Rs 224 to 324 billion for FY 2018-19.

Replying to another question, he said the CDNS has already increased rates on various savings certificates aimed at promoting savings culture in the country.

"The CDNS notified the upward revision in the profit rates for various saving certificates with effect from July 1st (2019), encouraging people to invest in various schemes of the directorate," he said.

He informed that the new rate for Defense Savings Certificate has been increased from 12.47 percent to 13.01 percent while the rate of Special Saving Certificate from 11.57 to 12.90, Regular Income Certificate from 12 percent to 12.96 percent.

Likewise, the rates of Savings Accounts have been increased from 8.5 percent to 10.25 percent while the rates of Bahbood Savings Certificates and Pensioners' Benefit Account were increased from 14.28 percent to 14.76 percent.

He informed that the government had also increased the short-term (3 months), medium-term (6 months) and long-term (12months) certificates to attract more people towards savings and investments with CDNS.

He said that the new rates for short-term certificates have been increased from 9.8 percent to 12.08 percent, medium-term from 9.88 percent to 12.18 percent while the rate of long-term certificate has been enhanced from 9.98 percent to 12.28 percent.