The government on Wednesday slashed the interest rates on small savings schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC), Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme, Kisan Vikas Patra and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme effective April 1. PPF will now fetch an interest rate of 6.4% instead of 7.1%. The PPF interest rate reportedly hit a 46-year-low after the latest cut.