Another assault by Modi on middle class: Rahul Gandhi on interest cut

New Delhi, Mar 19: Rahul Gandhi today came down hard on the government for slashing the interest rates on small savings, including PPF, dubbing it as yet another assault on the middle class.

"Slashing interest rates on small savings - on PPF and KVPs, is yet another assault by the Modi Govt on hard working middle class people," the Congress Vice President said in a series of tweets.

"This Govt has failed farmers, failed the poor & now it's failing the middle class. Modiji ppl are seeing through your event management politics! (sic)," he said Last night, AICC had also reacted sharply to the move saying it is "fleecing" the poor and is a "criminal breach" of trust of hapless people.

It had described it as an overt attempt at "robbing money by snatching it from unsuspecting individuals".

In a move that will hit common man, the government had yesterday slashed interest rates on all small savings schemes, including PPF, Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and senior citizen deposits, to make them more market aligned.

Interest rate on Public Provident Fund (PPF) scheme has been cut to 8.1 per cent for the period April 1 to June 30, from 8.7 per cent, at present.

PTI