West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said it was a "bad and unfortunate" decision by the government to reduce interest rates on various small savings schemes and PPF by 0.10 per cent.
"It is a bad and unfortunate decision. Many poor people invest in small savings schemes. They will be hard hit. This is against the aam aadmi," the Trinamool Congress chief told PTI here.
"The Centre is raising the prices of petrol and diesel frequently. They are privatising pension fund and increasing taxes including service tax. How many times shall I tell them?" she asked.
The interest rate of Public Provident Fund (PPF) has been lowered from 8.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent with effect from April 1, 2013.
