Savings certificates for disabled people launched

KARACHI: Government on Monday launched savings certificates for special people in line with its announcement made in the budget for the current fiscal year of 2017/18.

“The government has formally launched the scheme aiming at payment of profit to disabled persons at par with Behbood savings certificates,” a statement said. Launched in 2003, Behbood savings certificates with a 10-year maturity period and monthly profits initially targeted widows, but the following year it started accepting investments with denominations in the range of Rs5,000 to one million rupees from senior citizen aged 60 years and above.

The government announced to launch the savings certificates for disabled individuals in the budget for the fiscal year of 2017/18. “Accordingly the National Savings was entrusted with the task to frame rules under the guidance of finance division,” the statement said. “The rules have been approved by the federal government and notified by the finance division on 16 April.”

Government has already directed the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) to implement the scheme. It is estimated that around 192,000 disabled persons would benefit from the scheme. “The scheme also fulfills the objective of financial inclusion of the disabled persons,” the statement added.

CDNS is a premier financial institution offering retail government securities and savings products (known as national savings scheme) to small savers through diversified product mix.