Bid to boost bonds, and stop decline

Press, 3 September 1977, Page 2

Bid to boost bonds, and stop decline

PA Wellington The increase in Post Office bonus bond.; prizemoney from $487,000 to $687,000 a month, with a top prize of $50,000, should encourage people to leave their money in bonds and encourage more people to buy them, said the Post-master-General (Sir Wilkinson) yesterday. He did not think the bor. *j had become less attractive over the years, but they had been put at a disadvantage by higher interest rates elsewhere. Bonus bond holders do not

i receive interest, but the total prize-money is based on an internal interest calculation made by the Post i Office. T e interest rate for this internal calculation has been increased from 4.25 per cent to 6 per cent. Mr Wilkinson said there i had been a higher rate of redemt >n by bor. 1 holders recently, and the rate of increas* in bond sales had not been as great as in the past, but he hoped the 40 per cent increase in prize-money would change this. Bonds had the advantage of being tax-free. Money : could be withdrawn at any

time, and there was no limit on the number that could be bought. “Drawing on the experience of premium bonds organisers in the United Kingdom, we regularly review the basis for calculating the prize fund, the prize scale, and the odds of winning to ensure that bonus bonds remain an attractive investment,” Mr Wilkinson said. A total of $10.9M was invested in bonds in March, 1970, when they were first introduced. This rose to SI2BM in March last year, and SI3BM this March.