Since then, savers have migrated to banks, especially after they started offering attractive rates even on shortterm deposits. The consolation for the government could be that net collections of the Public Provident Fund until December 07 were positive at Rs 837.38 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 16,400 crore. But the net negative collections overall would mean the government providing cash to meet repayments whenever they come up. For 2007-08, the government has budgeted Rs 57,500 crore as collections. Against this, it has estimated repayments of small savings at Rs 56,597.15 crore. Unless there is an accounting anomaly, there could well be a considerable shortfall this fiscal, officials said.
