New Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS) The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced marginal reductions in key lending benchmarks and select term deposit rates, effective from December 15.

The bank reduced the rate on 2 to less than 3 years tenor to 6.40 per cent from 6.45 per cent. Senior citizens will receive a 50 bps premium over it, and their rate was cut to 6.90 per cent from 6.95 per cent. Other retail term deposit slabs were kept unchanged, a statement said.

The changes affect domestic retail term deposits below Rs 3 crore, the Marginal Cost of Funds‑based Lending Rate (MCLR), the External Benchmark Linked Rate (EBLR) and the Base Rate.

The bank reduced the popular 444‑day “Amrit Vrishti” deposit rate to 6.45 per cent from 6.60 per cent.

The SBI also eased borrowing costs of home, auto and MSME loans by reducing or Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) rates across all tenors by 5 basis points.

The MCLR rate overnight and one‑month was reduced to 7.85 per cent, three months to 8.25 per cent, six months to 8.60 per cent, one year to 8.70 per cent, two years to 8.75 per cent and three years to 8.80 per cent.

Further, the External Benchmark Lending Rate (EBLR) used to price many floating‑rate retail loans was lowered by 25 basis points to 7.90 per cent from 8.15 per cent. The Base Rate or BPLR for a small segment of legacy borrowers was cut to 9.90 per cent from 10.00 per cent, effective the same day.

Earlier this week, the government informed that there has been no capital infusion by the government in public sector banks since the financial year 2022-23, as they have significantly improved their financial performance to turn profitable and strengthened their capital position.

Meanwhile, the reduction in goods and services tax (GST) is expected to cut consumer price index (CPI) inflation by roughly 25 basis points in the September–November 2025 period and could reduce 35 basis points this fiscal (FY26), State Bank of India (SBI) said in a report.

–IANS

aar/na