The recommendation of Shyamala Gopinath Committee regarding agents’ commission was to reduce commission of 0.5% on Senior Citizens Saving Scheme (SCSS) and 1% on Public Provident Fund (PPF) to zero, reduce 4% commission under Mahila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojana (MPKBY) to 1% in a phased manner and to reduce 1% commission for all other schemes under Standardised Agency System (SAS) to 0.5%. The Government, after consulting all the stakeholders and the representations received, has decided to reduce the commission under PPF and SCSS to zero and under SAS to 0.5%. However, commission under MPKBY continues to be at 4% for the time being.
The main intention of these recommendations is to make these schemes more investor centric than agent centric.
Representations of Small Savings Agents’ Association from various states including Mumbai were received in the past. Taking into account large number of representations received from Small Savings Agent’s Associations, Members of Parliament, other dignitaries and others, the Government accepted most of the recommendations of the Committee.
This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance Shri Namo Narain Meena in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.
Source : PIB, dtd 13 Dec, 2012
