New Delhi, Dec 13 (PTI) The government on Monday informed the Lok Sabha that new accounts under small saving schemes have been witnessing decline since 2018-19.

As many as 4.66 crore new accounts were opened under the small saving schemes in 2018-19 which came down to 4.12 crore in 2019-20, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said.

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It further came down to 4.11 crore in 2020-21, he said.

Senior Citizens Savings Scheme too witnessed a decline in opening of new accounts, according to the data submitted by the Finance Ministry.

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New account opened under the scheme under the small saving scheme was 12.6 lakh in 2018-19, he said. It decreased to 12.2 lakh in 2019-20 and further to 11.4 lakh in 2020-21, he added.

The drop in new accounts was also seen in Post Office Saving Accounts. Till November this financial year, a total of 2.33 crore new small saving accounts have been opened.

The small savings schemes basket comprises 12 instruments including the National Saving Certificate (NSC), Public Provident Fund (PPF), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and Sukanya Samridihi Scheme. The government resets the interest rate at the beginning of every quarter.

Replying to another question, Chaudhary said, "the Electoral Bond Scheme is an unprecedented step towards cleansing the process of funding of political parties and major improvement over conventional practice of funding the political system through donations in cash."

The purchaser is allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfilment of all the extant instructions regarding KYC norms issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and by making payment from a bank account, he said.

All payments for the issuance of the bond are accepted only in Indian rupees, through demand draft or cheque or through Electronic Clearing System or direct debit to the buyer's account, he added.

Chaudhary said Rs 7,994.97 crore worth of Electoral Bond (EB) were purchased in 18 phases since 2018.

Of which Rs 7,974.69 crore were redeemed by political parties, he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)