Small Saving Schemes: The Ministry of Finance is scheduled to announce interest rates for small savings schemes on September 30, 2025. This decision is considered extremely important. The Ministry of Finance reviews interest rates for all post office small savings schemes, including PPF, SCSS, and SSY, every three months and announces new interest rates.
The new interest rates for the third quarter of this financial year, October-December 2025, will be announced on September 30. These new rates will be effective from October 1. Previously, the interest rates for the second quarter were reviewed in June 2025, but no changes were made to the interest rates.
This time, the most discussed interest rate is on the Public Provident Fund (PPF). Currently, PPF offers 7.1 percent interest, but there are indications that it may be reduced. If this happens, the PPF interest rate will reach its lowest level in the last 50 years. However, no official information has been revealed in this regard yet.
Interest rates have remained unchanged for the past six quarters.
This marks the sixth consecutive quarter in which the rates for these schemes have remained unchanged. This means that investors are currently receiving the same returns as those promised in the April-June quarter. The question now is whether any changes will be seen in the October-December quarter.
The schemes for which interest rates are to be decided include the Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), National Savings Certificate (NSC), Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS), and others. A reduction in interest rates this time could be a major setback for investors. However, an increase in interest rates would be good news for investors.
Learn how post office interest rates are determined.
The government reviews the interest rates of post office schemes every quarter. These rates are determined based on the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee. The committee recommends that the interest rates of these schemes should be 25 to 100 basis points higher than the yield on government bonds for the corresponding period. This ensures that these schemes remain attractive to investors.
However, sometimes the government doesn’t set interest rates based on this formula. This is because the government is not obligated to always follow the committee’s recommendations. Sometimes, the government makes its own decisions based on the public interest.
