January 18, 2022: The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) obtained Rs500 billion fresh deposits in half yearly of current fiscal year 2021-22 from July 1 to January 14.

The CDNS has set an annual gross receipt target of Rs980 billion from July 1 to June 30 of the previous fiscal year 2020-21 to promote savings in the country, a senior official of CDNS told APP here on Monday.

The senior official said the CDNS had set Rs250 billion annual collection target from July 1 to June 30 for the year 2020-21 as compared to Rs352 billion for the previous year (2019-20) same time span to enhance savings in the country.

The CDNS had set Rs352 billion annual collection target for the year 2019-20 as compared to Rs350 billion for the previous year (2018-19), he said.

The CDNS had received an increased investment of Rs80 billion by June 30 2021, from the newly registered Premium Prize Bond of Rs40,000 and Rs25,000 by the institution.

During last year (2020-21), investors withdrew Rs300 billion after the suspension of the said bond.

He said new registered Premium Prize Bonds of Rs40,000 and Rs25,000 were registered by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and encashed only by the registered financial institutions under the SBP.

Replying to a question, he informed, “We paid the encashment of Rs155 billion by June 30th of this month to the investors against the suspension of prize bonds of Rs25,000.”

He said the federal government recently withdrew Rs25,000 prize bonds and had given a six-month deadline to investors to encash their total savings of Rs160 billion.

The senior official of CDNS said National Savings had paid Rs148 billion to its customers in the last six months after withdrawing Rs7,500 prize bonds and the remaining Rs5 billion out of the total Rs160 billion would also be paid by October 30, 2021, he said.

He informed that the government had already canceled prize bonds of Rs40,000 and CDNS repaid to the investors the encashment worth of Rs258 billion in the previous fiscal year 2019-20.

He said the CDNS had opened new avenues for public and private investment to document the country’s economy and ensure transparency in the financial system.

Replying to another question on the current revision of CDNS certificates’ profit rates, he said the CDNS had maintained the same interest rate on the savings certificates investment due to the market situation and as per Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIB) policy decision.

He informed that the CDNS interest rates were linked with the PIB policy set by the SBP.

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