Interest rates remain unchanged since the past five years - Surprising isn't it?
Apropos our dated 30.01.2009, and the interest rate chart shown therein, we received the following mail from a netizen.
As a common man and a clerk dealing with excise and customs matters, I do not have much hang of the economy and am always mesmerized by terms such as Inflation rates, RBI repo rates, call money rate and what not. I only know that my fixed deposits do not earn much nowadays and the longer the period of my deposit, (say more than 5 years), the lesser are the rates of interest as compared to interest for a 1 year period. I am also advised by my local banker to keep my deposits for a period of one year only. Probably, survival of banks itself is becoming a question mark and it would not be far when I would be required to pay the bank an interest for keeping my deposits safe.
The reason for this mail are a few interesting facts that I could gather while surfing the banks websites.
from the website of Bank of Maharashtra, www.bankofmaharashtra.in
Duration | For Amount less than Rs. 15 Lakhs | For Amount Rs. 15 Lakhs & above to less than Rs. 1 crore | For amount Rs. 1 crore & above |
|---|---|---|---|
Revised rates wef 19.01.09 | Revised rates wef 19.01.09 | Revised rates with Immediate Effect | |
7days -14 days | 3.50 | 3.50 | 3.50 |
15 days to 30 days | 4.50 | 4.50 | 4.50 |
31 days to 45 days | 4.75 | 4.75 | 4.75 |
46 days to 90 days | 5.50 | 5.50 | 6.00 |
91 days to 180 days | 7.25 | 7.25 | 6.25 |
181 days to 270 days | 7.75 | 7.75 | 6.75 |
271 days to less than one year | 8.25 | 8.25 | 7.25 |
ONE YEAR or 365 days | 8.75 | 8.75 | 7.50 |
Over One year to less than three years | 8.75 | 8.75 | 7.50 |
Three Years (Mahalaxmi Term Deposit) | 8.50 | 8.50 | 7.50 |
Over three years to five years | 8.50 | 8.50 | 7.50 |
Above 5 years | 8.50 | 8.50 | 7.50 |
If this be so, why have the Customs and Excise interest rates remained unchanged for the past five years? Does DDT have an answer to this?