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Kolkata: State Bank of India, the largest bank of the country, has staged an act of great financial daring. While most top banks of the country has slashed deposit rates across the board, SBI has brought down the rates of only its Amrit Vrishti scheme and left the other rates unchanged. The rates have been effective from today, Sunday, June 15, 2025.

A cut in key Repo Rate sends most banks scampering to reduce FD rates since the Repo rate dip creates such a situation that the banks have to cut their lending rates too to stay competitive. Since the income of the banks down, they have to bring down their deposit rates too, which, in a sense, indicates the expenditure of the banks. But SBI management has decided not to cut the deposit rates except the Amrit Vrishti FD scheme. Last week, the top banks of the country including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and IDFC First Bank have decreased their FD interest rates following the aggressive cut by the central bank.

SBI’s Amrit Vrishti FD Scheme

This FD scheme is of a fixed tenure — 444 days. The downward revision brings down the interest rates of Amrit Vrishti scheme to 6.6% per annum for general customers. Earlier the rate was 6.85%. “The interest rate of the specific tenor scheme of “Amrit Vrishti”(444 days) has also been revised from 6.85% to 6.60% with effect from 15-June-2025. Senior Citizens and Super Senior Citizens are eligible for their additional benefits in rate of interest,” SBI said in its website. Accordingly, senior Citizens will be henceforth paid annual interest rate of 7.10% on Amrit Vrishti. There is an additional 10 basis point interest rate for those above 80 years ie, super senior citizens and they would now get 7.20% per annum.

How it must be borne in mind that there are penalties for premature withdrawal. For retail FDs (investments of up to Rs 3 crore), a premature withdrawal penalty of 50 basis points will be charged. The general FD rates for general customers are between 3.30% and 6.7% for tenures between 7 days and 10 years. But this range excludes the special tenure FDs.