what your ppf account will now fetch Instrument Savings deposit 1-year time deposit 2-year time deposit 3-year time deposit 5-year time deposit 5-year RD Senior citizen saving schemes Monthly income account National Savings Certificate Pubic Provident Fund scheme KANNUR l thursday l april 01, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION Small savings rates slashed. A case of bad timing? The Centre on Wednesday revised interest rates of various small savings schemes for the first quarter of FY22 (April 1 to June 30, 2021) The announcement comes at a time when five states are going to polls This might not sit well with voters who have invested in small saving schemes 50-100 bps down Rate of interest 1.1.2021 to 31.3.2021 4.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 6.7 5.8 7.4 6.6 6.8 7.1 Kisan Vikas Patra Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis. The new rates are lower by 50-100 basis points and this is for the first time since 1974 that Public Provident Fund interest rate will be below 7 per cent Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme Rate of interest Compounding 1.4.2021 to frequency 30.6.2021 3.5 4.4 5.0 5.1 5.8 5.3 6.5 5.7 5.9 6.4 6.9 (maturing 6.2 (maturing Annual Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Monthly Annual Annual in 124 months) in 138 months) Annual 7.6 6.9 Annual The last time the Central government had cut the interest rates of small savings schemes in a big way was in the April-June quarter of 2020-21, when rates were slashed by 70-140 basis points A3.9 lakh cr From the small savings corpus will be used to finance 26% of the fiscal deficit in FY22 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI I’M THOROUGHLY ENJOYING MY JOB The first question one would like to ask on meeting Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is when she would enter the electoral fray. When TNIE asked her about it during an exclusive chat, the AICC general secretary said, “Not yet” with a cute smile. Oppn leader uploads list of fake voters after HC order Court directs election commission to permit Absent-Shifted-Dead voters to leave polling booths only after indelible ink dries EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ T’Puram/Kochi Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and UDF candidate in Wadakkanchery Anil Akkara wave to the crowd during a road show in the constituency on Wednesday | A Sanesh My job at the moment is to build the organisation in Uttar Pradesh. I’m doing that job which I’m thoroughly enjoying Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “The UDF is doing well and we’ll come back to power. The LDF has ruined them all and I hope people will respond through their mandate” | P5 Priyanka will attend a road show on Saturday in Kazhakoottam, Nemom and Vattiyoorkavu while returning from campaigning in Sriperumbudur where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated In bid to placate irked Muraleedharan, Priyanka to return to state on April 3 C y n t h ia C h an d ran @T’Puram AFTER the UDF’s Nemom candidate K Muraleedharan made clear his disappointment with the eleventh-hour cancellation of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s roadshow in the constituency, the Congress star campaigner has decided to return to Kerala for a whirlwind three-hour roadshow on Saturday . The Gandhi scion had decided to skip the poll convention in Nemom on Tuesday because of a delay in the schedule, a move that left Muraleedharan — who was already irked by the party cadre’s lackadaisical approach to his campaign — less than pleased. He was also peeved at Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala for apparently dire c t i n g t h e p a r t y ’s energies to the adjacent constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, where sitting MLA V S Sivakumar is in the fray, said a leader close to Muraleedharan. After the roadshow was cancelled, he took up the issue with Congress national general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, who immediately took steps to control the damage. Following Venugopal’s intervention, a number of central, state and local Congress committee leaders arrived at Muraleedharan’s house to pla● More on P6 cate him.  WITH just five more days to go for the state assembly polls, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala has taken his fight over the bogus voters issue to the LDF camp by uploading the entire list of 4.3 lakh fake entries on the web. The move came soon after the High Court directed the Election Commission to permit ‘Absent-Shifted-Dead’ (ASD) voters to leave the polling booths only after the indelible ink is dried. All the photographs of the ASD voters taken in the booths be collected, digitised and kept by the commission, the court directed. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly issued the order while disposing of the petition filed by Chennithala seeking to delete or freeze the multiple entries of names in the electoral roll. Chennithala’s ‘Operation Twins’ allows anyone to access the entire list of multiple entries in each of the 140 constituencies in the state with a click of a button. Chennithala had been saying that he would release the entire list on the web once the court decides on his petition. The website contains the multiple entries of voters and voters’ IDs created with the same photographs but in different names in various booths in different nearby constituencies. The website www.opera- tiontwins.com also gives the constituency number, booth number, candidates names, the name of the voter in that constituency, voter ID, and the voter ID and address of the same person in the neighbouring constituency . Disposing of the petition by Chennithala, the HC observed that free and fair elections are part of the democratic rights of the citizens. The HC bench also made it clear that all the safeguards provided in the Representation of Peoples Act for free and fair election be scrupulously followed to avoid multiple and bogus voting. “The EC should take all possible steps to prevent double voting or impersonated voting. Public notice should be issued cautioning the voters of any attempt to cast multiple votes, stating that strict action will be taken by the commission as ● More on P6 per law.  Poll bytes Man hands over pension, seeks vote Alappuzha: After the video of a person counting currency notes and telling an elderly woman --- who was about to cast her postal vote --- that it was her pension for two months went viral, district collector has sought a report from the returning officer. P Councillors of CPM, KC(M) clash in Pala Kottayam: In a major embarrassment to the Left front, the councillors of the Kerala Congress (M) and the CPM clashed at a standing council meeting at the Pala municipality on Wednesday. Surendran, Sobha campaign together T’Puram: Sending out a message of unity ahead of the polls, BJP state chief K Surendran on Wednesday participated in a roadshow in Kazhakoottam along with NDA candidate Sobha Surendran, with whom he has had an uneasy working relationship. Unite against BJP: Didi to Oppn leaders E xpress N ews S ervice @ Kolkata/New Delhi/Patna/Mumbai I strongly believe that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the Constitution Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM Accusing the BJP of trying to establish a one-party ‘’authoritarian rule’’ in the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baner jee on Wednesday wrote to top Opposition leaders urging them to unite to defend democracy . Her letter came ahead of the second phase of Assembly elections in West Bengal and it Customs issues 2nd notice, to quiz speaker on April 8 Express News service @ Kochi THE Customs probing the dollar smuggling case on Wednesday issued a notice to Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, asking him to appear Smuggling for interrogation on April 8. This is the second notice served to the speakof $1.9 lakh er as part of the probe. The case Earlier, Sreeramakrishnan did not pertains to the turn up for questioning claiming that smuggling of he will appear only after the assembly $1.9 lakh by elections. Considering his request, Khaled the central agency decided to quesMohamed Ali tion him after the elections, slated for Shoukri, the April 6. The accused Swapna Suresh, former finance in her confession statement, had rehead of the vealed that Sreeramakrishnan handUAE Consulate ed over a bag containing currency in T’Puram, to notes to be smuggled abroad to coCairo in August accused Sarith P S at an apartment in 2019. The Thiruvananthapuram. amount was Swapna alleged that the Speaker part of the has investment in an education insticommission tute in Oman. She also alleged that given by Unitac the speaker tried to cozy up to her Builders. with dirty intentions. Contraction Core infra slips 4.6% in Feb, the most in 6 months Express news service @ New Delhi Indicating that economic recovery would be slower than anticipated, output of the eight infrastructure sectors contracted by a sharp 4.6% in February – the steepest decline in the past six months – the latest government data showed. According to commerce ministry data released on Wednesday the eight key core sectors – coal, crude oil, , natural gas, refinery products fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity – witnessed a decline of 4.4%, 3.2%, 1%, 10.9%, 3.7%, 1.8%, 5.5%, and 0.2%, respectively, in February . Core sector data is crucial as its combined weight is over 40% in the Index of Industrial production (IIP). In January 2021, industrial production slipped 1.6%, after registering a 1% growth in December 2020. is being seen as an initiative to drum up Opposition support against the BJP, which is the main rival of the ruling Trinamool Congress in the ongoing polls. Her call drew mixed reactions within the Opposition with the Congress choosing to remain silent, though regional parties like the RJD, NCP AAP , and SP extended full support. “I strongly believe that that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attack on democracy and the Constitution. We can win this battle only with the unity of hearts and mind and by presenting a credible alternative to the people of India,’’ she wrote. In the three-page letter, Mamata appealed to non-BJP leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, ailing NCP founder Sharad Pawer and DMK chief M K Stalin.