SAVINGS CERTIFICATES

(1) After the publication in the Gazette of a
resolution under section 2, the Minister[1] may, from time to time, direct the Postmaster-General to borrow sums of money not exceeding in the aggregate the amount specified in the resolution, by the issue of savings certificates under this Ordinance.

(2) The Postmaster-General may also, when so directed by the Minister,[1] borrow by the issue of savings certificates under this Ordinance such sums of money as may from time to time be required for the purpose of meeting current demands for the surrender values of savings certificates issued or deemed to have been issued under this Ordinance.

(a) the denomination or denominations of the savings certificates which are to be issued; and

(b) the purchase price and the surrender value of a certificate of each such denomination.

(1) Savings certificates may be issued in accordance with such regulations as may be made in that behalf, to-

(2) The decision of the Postmaster-General as to whether any society or association is a thrift, benefit, benevolent or provident society or association, as the case may be, shall be final and conclusive.

(a) to a minor who, is resident outside Ceylon if the parent, guardian, curator or trustee of that minor is resident in Ceylon on the date of the issue of such certificate ; or

(b) to a person who is not a minor and is resident outside Ceylon, in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by the aforesaid regulations.

(1) The aggregate of the denominational value of all savings certificates held at any time by any person or body of persons shall not exceed such limit as may be prescribed ; and no savings certificate shall at any time be issued so as to increase the holding of any such person or body of persons beyond the limit so prescribed.

(2) The power to make regulations prescribing the limits referred to in subsection (1) shall be deemed to include power to prescribe different limits for different classes of persons or for different classes of savings certificates.

(a) the right of the Postmaster-General, in accordance with such regulations as may be made in that behalf, to issue a new savings certificate in any case where the purchaser of a savings certificate desires to gift his rights thereunder ; or

(b) the right of the purchaser of any savings certificate to assign such certificate by way of security for the payment of moneys which may be or become due to the Government or to any local authority, or as security for the purposes of section 2 of the Public Officers (Security) Ordinance ; or

(c) the right of the purchaser of a savings certificate of such class or description as may be declared by regulation to be assignable, to assign any certificate of such class or description in the prescribed manner to any person.

(1) Regulations may be made providing, in the event of the death of the purchaser of a savings
certificate-

(2) Any new savings certificate issued and any payment made under this section by the Postmaster-General shall be and shall operate for all purposes as a complete discharge of the obligations of the Government and of the Postmaster-General in respect of any savings certificate issued to the deceased purchaser or of any money payable on the surrender of that certificate.

(3) Nothing in this Ordinance or in any regulation made thereunder shall affect or be deemed to affect the right of the Commissioner of Estate Duty, under any law for the time being in force, to receive from the Postmaster-General the surrender value, at the time of the death of any deceased purchaser, of any savings certificate forming part of the estate of such purchaser.

(1) Where any savings certificate is seized or sequestered in execution of a decree or order of any court, the Fiscal effecting the seizure or sequestration shall forward the savings certificate to the Postmaster-General who shall cancel such certificate and pay the surrender value thereof as on the date of seizure or sequestration to the credit of the action in which that decree was entered or order made.

(2) Where the Fiscal, in the execution of a decree or order entered or made against any person who is the purchaser of a savings certificate or in sequestering the property of any such person under a mandate of sequestration issued by any court, is unable for any reason to obtain possession of the savings certificate, the amount of the surrender value of that certificate shall be deemed to be a debt not secured by a negotiable instrument due from the Postmaster-General as debtor to the purchaser as creditor ; and the provisions of section 229 of the Civil Procedure Code shall apply accordingly:

Provided that the Postmaster-General or the Government shall not incur any liability or be subject to any penalty by reason only of the fact that the surrender value of any savings certificate is paid to the purchaser thereof after the service of a prohibitory notice under section 229 of the Civil Procedure Code, if such payment was bona fide made by any person on behalf of the Postmaster-General by error or by accident or in ignorance of the fact of the service of such prohibitory notice.

(1) On the surrender of a savings certificate (other than a savings certificate in respect of which a prohibitory notice has been served on the Postmaster-General under section 229 of the Civil Procedure Code) in the prescribed manner and at a prescribed place, the purchaser shall be entitled to receive the surrender value of that certificate at the time of such surrender :

Provided that where a savings certificate is issued on the condition, to be set- out on the face of that certificate, that it is not to be surrendered before such period as may be specified thereon, the purchaser of that certificate shall not be entitled to surrender that certificate or to receive the surrender value of that certificate before the expiry of that period.

(2) Where, for the purposes of this section, any place outside Ceylon is prescribed as a place at which savings certificates may be surrendered, the Postmaster-General may make and he is hereby authorized to make such arrangements as may be necessary to enable savings certificates to be surrendered at that place.

(1) Every purchaser who knowingly obtains or
attempts to obtain the surrender value of any savings certificate in respect of which a prohibitory notice has been served on him under section 229 of the Civil Procedure Code, shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction after summary trial before a Magistrate, be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both such fine and imprisonment; and where any court convicts any person of the offence of having knowingly obtained the surrender value of any savings certificate under this subsection, the court shall, in addition to any other punishment which it may impose for that offence, order a sum equal to the amount of the surrender value so obtained to be recovered from that person as though it were a fine imposed by the court; and any such sum may be recovered notwithstanding that it may exceed the amount of the fine which the court may in the exercise of its ordinary jurisdiction impose. Every such sum when recovered by the court, shall be remitted to the Postmaster-General and shall be paid by him into the Savings Certificates Fund established by section 16.

(2) Any person who is dissatisfied with any order made under subsection (1) may, if he appeals against the conviction in consequence of which the order was made, appeal against the order to the Supreme Court and the provisions of sections 338 to 352 of the Criminal Procedure Code shall apply to such appeal.

(1) A fund to be called the Savings Certificates Fund is hereby established for the purposes of this Ordinance.

(2) All moneys received by the Postmaster-General on the issue of savings certificates shall be paid by him from time to time into the fund:

Provided that, out of moneys received by him as aforesaid, the Postmaster-General may, subject to such directions as may be given to him in that behalf by the trustees, retain in his custody such sums as may be immediately required for the purpose of meeting current demands for the surrender values of savings certificates already issued, and make all such payments as may be necessary to meet such demands.

(3) All moneys standing, on the day immediately preceding the 19th day of October, 1946, to the credit of the Savings Certificates Fund established under section 24 of the Savings Certificates Ordinance, No. 11 of 1938, *[* Repealed by Ordinance No. 7 of 1946.] shall, on that date, be paid into the fund established by subsection (1) of this section.

(1) The trustees shall retain in their name, either with the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury[1] or in such bank or banks as they may think fit, such portion of the fund as may in their opinion be required for the purpose of meeting current demands for the surrender values of savings certificates already issued, and shall from time to time issue to the Postmaster-General at his request such sums as may be necessary for that purpose.

(2) Out of the balance of the fund, a sum not exceeding one-third of the fund may, with the approval of the Minister of Finance,[1] be invested by the trustees in loans granted from time to time to the Government; and the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury [1] is hereby authorized to borrow such sum on behalf of the Government and to act for the Government for the purposes of any such loan.

(3) Out of such part of the balance of the fund as may not be immediately required for the purposes of subsection (2), the trustees may from time to time grant loans of such amounts as may be approved by the Minister of Finance [1] to the Local Loans and Development Commissioners for the purposes of the Local Loans and Development Ordinance,

(4) The terms as to repayment and interest and the other conditions on which any loan is granted under subsection (2) or subsection (3) shall be such as may be approved by the Minister of Finance [1] either generally or in the special circumstances of any particular case.

(5) Such part of the fund as may not be immediately required for the purposes of subsections (1), (2) and (3) may-

(6) Every loan granted under this section to the Local Loans and Development Commissioners shall be deemed to be a sum appropriated to the Local Loans and Development Fund by enactment, and shall, together with the interest due thereon, be repaid out of that fund.

(7) During the continuance of any war in which Her Majesty may be engaged, such part of the fund as may not be immediately required for the purposes of subsection (1) may, notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this section, be invested by the trustees in any loan raised by the Government of Ceylon for the purposes of that war.

(1) As soon as possible after the thirtieth day of September in each year, the trustees shall furnish to the Auditor-General a statement of accounts showing-

(2) Every statement furnished under subsection (1) shall be published in the Gazette with a certificate by the Auditor-General as to its accuracy and
completeness.

(1) For the purposes of this Ordinance the Commissioner of Stamps may, with the consent of the Minister of Finance,[1] provide special stamps (hereinafter referred to as ” savings stamps “) of such values as the Minister of Finance [1] may determine.

(2) Regulations may be made providing that payments on account of the purchase price of savings certificates of prescribed denominational values may be made by means of savings stamps affixed to books or cards or otherwise in the prescribed manner.

(3) The provisions of sections 248 to 256, both inclusive, of the Penal Code shall apply to savings stamps in like manner as those provisions apply to stamps issued by the Government for the purpose of
revenue.

(1) The Minister[1] may make all such regulations as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out or giving effect to the principles and provisions of this Ordinance.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by subsection (1), the Minister [1] may make regulations for or in respect of all or any of the following matters: –

(3) Every regulation made by the Minister1 under this Ordinance shall be published in the Gazette and shall come into operation on such date as may be specified in the regulation or, if no such date is so specified, on the date of such publication.

(4) Every regulation made by the Minister [1] shall be brought before the Senate and the House of Representatives [1] as soon as may be after the publication thereof by a motion that such regulation shall be approved.

(5) Any regulation which the Senate or the House of Representatives[1] refuses to approve shall be deemed to be rescinded, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or to the making of any new regulation. The date on which a regulation shall be deemed to be so rescinded shall be the date on which the Senate or the House of Representatives[1] refuses to approve the regulation.

(6) Notification of the date on which any regulation made by the Minister1 is deemed to be so rescinded shall be published in the Gazette.

(7) Any regulation made by the Minister1 shall, when approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives,[1] be as valid and effectual as if it were herein enacted. Notification of such approval shall be published in the Gazette.

(a) in the case of a savings certificate which
is issued to an approved savings group and which has not been acquired by a member of that group, means the approved savings group to which that certificate is issued,

(b) in the case of a savings certificate which
is issued to an approved savings group and which has been acquired by a member of that group, means the member who acquires that certificate from that group,

(c) in any other case, means the person or
body of persons to whom a savings certificate is issued under this Ordinance;