Sri Lanka Senior Citizen FD Calculator (15% Special Deposit Scheme)

The Senior Citizens' Special Deposit Scheme is a Treasury subsidy administered through the four state-owned banks. The bank pays the depositor a gazetted enhanced rate — currently 15% per annum — and the Ministry of Finance reimburses the bank for the spread above the bank's ordinary cost of funds. The subsidy is capped at a per-person principal ceiling, currently Rs 1,000,000per depositor across all state banks. Any rupee above the cap held at the same bank earns that bank's ordinary FD rate, not the subsidised rate.

1. Eligibility. The depositor must be aged 60 or older on the deposit date. The calculator validates this from the age you enter and skips the scheme branch entirely if you are under 60.
2. Cap split. Let C be the per-person ceiling. If your deposit is at or under C, the whole principal earns 15%. If above, C rupees earn 15% and the spillover earns whatever market rate you enter as the comparison rate.
3. Statutory rate per bank. All four state banks pay the same 15% under the scheme. Private banks (HNB, Commercial Bank, etc.) market their own senior-FD products at bank-set rates — these are not statutory and the per-person cap does not apply to them, but neither does the Treasury top-up.
4. Period interest. For a tenor of n months and a payout frequency f (Monthly = 12 per year, Quarterly = 4, Annual = 1, At-maturity = 1):
   • Gross interest per payout = P_scheme × (15% / f) + P_spill × (r_market / f)
   • State-bank product terms use a simple interest convention for periodic payouts — the bank pays out the interest each period rather than compounding it, so the annual rate divides cleanly by the number of payouts.
5. Senior-citizen WHT. Inland Revenue Act §84A gives a senior depositor an annual interest-income exemption of Rs 1,500,000 per Year of Assessment. Combined interest from all resident-bank sources in the YA is summed, the first Rs 1,500,000 is exempt, and 5% Withholding Tax is deducted on anything above. The calculator's "other interest this YA" field lets you account for income from other deposits so the exemption headroom is computed correctly.
6. Net per payout and maturity.Net interest = gross − WHT. Maturity payout = original principal + total net interest across the tenor. For at-maturity payouts the bank holds the interest until tenor end, which is reflected in the year-by-year ledger's closing balance.

Why the four state banks pay the same statutory rate

The 15% rate is set by gazette and the Treasury reimburses each participating bank for the spread between that rate and the bank's ordinary cost of funds. That structure neutralises any incentive for one state bank to compete on rate. So the choice between Bank of Ceylon, National Savings Bank, People's Bank, Regional Development Bankcomes down to branch network, withdrawal flexibility, complaint-resolution speed, and whether the depositor already holds the savings account to which interest will be credited. Bank of Ceylon and People's Bank have the widest branch footprint outside Colombo. NSB has higher per-branch deposit volume because it focuses on retail savings. RDB is a useful option in regions where the other three have limited reach. None of this affects the rupee outcome of the calculation — the calculator therefore shows the same 15% scheme rate regardless of which state bank you pick.

The WHT trade-off most calculators miss

A senior holding multiple deposits at different banks can quietly breach the §84A exemption ceiling without realising it. Each bank treats its own interest payments in isolation and applies WHT starting at zero — but the IRD aggregates across all banks at year end via the depositor's NIC. If aggregated interest crosses the exemption ceiling, the additional WHT is settled via the self-assessment return. The "other interest this YA" field captures this: enter what you expect to earn elsewhere and the calculator shifts the scheme's effective WHT share upward. This matters most for adult children helping a parent plan across two or three banks — pooling deposits at one statutory bank (subject to the per-person cap) is often cleaner than splitting across many.

Edge cases and rounding

Three corner cases are worth flagging. (1) Deposits at exactly the per-person cap produce zero spillover and the comparison panel shows the scheme on the full deposit. (2) Where combined YA interest sits below the exemption ceiling, WHT is zero and net equals gross to the rupee — the "effective WHT" indicator displays zero rather than a near-zero fraction. (3) The per-period interest figure is computed as annual ÷ frequency, which is the convention each state-bank product page uses; if a bank publishes a different per-period figure it is almost always because the bank lists the rate inclusive of WHT, and applying our 5% deduction to the gross will reconcile to their net figure.

Three scenarios, hand-reconciled before the calculator was wired up. Plug each row of inputs into the tool above — the result tiles and ledger should match the numbers below to the rupee.

• Ministry of Finance — Budget Speech 2025 (Senior Citizens' Special Deposit Scheme)
• Central Bank of Sri Lanka — Monetary Law Act and Monetary Board circulars
• Bank of Ceylon — Senior Citizens' Special Fixed Deposit
• National Savings Bank — Senior Citizens' Special Deposit
• People's Bank — Senior Citizens' Special Deposit Account
• Inland Revenue Department — Withholding Tax on Interest (IRA §84A)

Rates and ceilings on this page were last cross-checked against the cited sources on 2026-05-16. Bank product terms can change at short notice — confirm the current rate at branch before depositing a material sum.