Government has cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent on short-term post office deposits, Kisan Vikas Patras and other small saving schemes below five years of maturity. However, it left social security schemes such as Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, long term Monthly Income Scheme and PPF untouched. The decision was taken to align interest on small savings with market rates and help the economy move to a lower overall interest rate regime eventually. Post office savings of 1, 2 and 3 year term deposits, Kisan Vikas Patra as well as 5-year Recurring Deposits till now earned 0.25 per cent higher interest than the government securities of similar tenures. Finance Ministry in a statement said this advantage will be withdrawn from 1st of April this year and now the rates would be revised every quarter.The interim interest rate for the Employees Provident Fund for this year has been fixed at 8.8 per cent, an increase of 0.05 percent over last year. It is expected to benefit over 4 crore subscribers of the fund. The decision for the marginal increase has been arrived at the meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation, chaired by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya in Chennai yesterday.