Profit rate on Shuhada family welfare account increased

KARACHI: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) brought up the profit rate of Shuhada family welfare account scheme on par with Behbood saving certificate and Pensioners benefit account, a senior official said.

The investment instruments will have annual returns of 10.08 percent, Zafar Masud, Director General of CDNS told The News.

Masud said the rates of all the savings products are linked to long-term bonds or Pakistan Investment Bonds.

“Whatever changes occur in the government securities, our products, except Shuhada family welfare account scheme, work on the same direction,” he added. “Any increase in interest rates results in increase in the profit rates of the scheme, but any decrease will not impact the investments.”

The scheme is for armed forces, law enforcement agencies as well as civilians. They can open account with Rs10,000 to five million rupees. The government exempted the scheme from withholding tax and zakat on the profit earned by family members.

The size of national savings certificates reached around 36 percent of bank deposits. Currently, the size of National Savings is Rs3.516 trillion while the banks’ deposit size is in excess of Rs11 trillion.