The net collection from the National Saving Certificates sales in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year stood at Tk 577.34 crore, or 9.62 per cent of the target of the Tk 6,000 crore for the year.
Data released by the Directorate of National Savings on Wednesday showed that NSCs worth Tk 17,249.14 crore were sold through banks, saving bureaus and post offices from July to May whereas the total sales of NSCs in the same period of FY2010-11 was Tk 16,167.02 crore. 
As a result, the net investment stood at Tk 577.34 crore in July-May as Tk 16,671.80 crore had to be paid as payment of the capital against the saving instruments sold earlier. The amount of capital money payment was Tk 13,724.02 crore in July-May of FY2010-11, taking the net investment to Tk 2,443 crore.
The government had made a target to collect Tk 6,000 crore this financial year from saving instruments to meet its budget deficit for the current financial year.
‘With the current monthly trend in NSCs sales and one month of the current FY remaining, it is almost certain that the government will miss by a long way the target of bringing in Tk 6,000 crore net investment from the NSCs in the current FY,’ said an official of the DNS.
DNS data showed that NSCs worth Tk 2,042.45 crore were sold in May. On the other hand, the total sale of NSCs in May of FY2010-11 was Tk 1,317.24 crore.
The net investment, however, stood at Tk 197.71 crore in May as Tk 1,844.75 crore had to be paid as payment of the capital money to the clients.
In May of FY2010-11, the net investment entered a negative of Tk 62.67 crore, because Tk 1,379.91 crore was paid as capital money.  
An official of the directorate told New Age on Tuesday that the sales of NSCs had increased from March after the government decided to raise the rate of interest on all saving instruments on February 23 with effect from March 1.
Under the circumstances, the trend of pre-mature encashment of the saving instruments has decreased for the last few months compared with that of the corresponding period of the last financial year, he said.
He said, ‘Although the net investment on the NSCs increased from March, it is yet to reach to a satisfactory level.’
The tax at source of 10 per cent on the NSC has not yet been withdrawn by the government, and as a result the clients are reluctant to invest there, he said.
He, however, said the DNS would take a number of programmes including advertisement in print and electronic media from the start of the coming financial year to increase the sales of NSCs.
A BB official said that the government had been forced to go for heavy bank borrowing due to the lower investment on NSCs and poor disbursement of foreign loans and grants.
For these reasons, the government recently decided to increase its bank borrowings by more than 47 per cent to Tk 27,900 crore, he said.
He said the government had been borrowing significant amount of money from the banking source for managing its budget deficit at the last moment of the outgoing FY 2011-12.