‘Yahapalanaya’ hits senior citizens below the belt
Posted on March 2nd, 2015
Paul Fernando Colombo Courtesy Island
March 1, 2015, 12:00 pm
It seems that the ‘Yahapalanaya’ government believes in hitting the senior citizen below the belt through the application of the latest Central Bank (CBSL) directive on fixed deposit interest rates.
The CBSL directive to banks specifies the revised eligibility criteria for the special interest scheme and it begins ‘(a) Senior citizens above 60 years of age who held rupee fixed deposits not exceeding rupees one million in aggregate in all banks as at 31.01.2015’. The key words are that the additional interest will apply only to those senior citizens who held deposits not exceeding rupees one million in aggregate in all banks. The aggregate limit also applies to those reaching 60 years after 31st January 2015. But, these citizens do have the opportunity of keeping only one million in the banks and investing the rest of their funds elsewhere – e. g. finance companies. It may also mean that senior citizens may not be able to make use of the benefits afforded by the SL Savings Bank as these too would be covered by the term ‘ in all banks as at 31.01.2015.’
The original benefit given by the Rajapaksa government afforded an increased rate of 12% on deposits up to Rupees two and a half million in aggregate for a period of five years. Some were able to make use of this benefit which was available for just two weeks. The new government halted the scheme within a few days of coming into power and replaced it with a rate of 15% on deposits upto an aggregate of Rupees one million. Now comes a body blow – the increased rate will apply only if the deposits held in all banks as at 31st January 2015 does not exceed one million in aggregate!
It seems Sirisena’s ‘Maithree’ as applied by Ravi Karunanayake is for the benefit of the finance companies and possibly other Sakvithi and Golden Key type operations.
Paul Fernando
Colombo
March 3rd, 2015 at 6:23 am
A bloody fraud!
March 3rd, 2015 at 12:39 pm
This is part of the Gona-Palanaya illegal govt. to make poor senior depositors lose their savings by investing their savings in dubious ventures. The Golden Key scam too was such a Ponzi Scheme and made depositors, younger and older, lose their monies.
Senior despositors have no knowledge of the money markets and their gimmicks. They just want their savings safe so that they can get by in their old age.
Shame on Gona-Palanaya eating into the savings of retirees.