(1)The Treasury may by order made by statutory instrument, which shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, increase—
(a)the rate specified in section 5 of the [1954 c. 62.] Post Office Savings Bank Act 1954 of the interest payable to depositors in the National Savings Bank in respect of ordinary deposits;
(b)the maximum rate specified in section 15 of the [1969 c. 50.] Trustee Savings Banks Act 1969 of the interest payable to depositors by the trustees of a trustee savings bank in respect of ordinary deposits ;
(c)the maximum rate specified in section 414(3)(a) of the [1970 c. 10.] Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970 for the interest payable on deposits in a savings bank maintained under a local Act for the Treasury to certify a bank or department for the purposes of that section;
and any order made under this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order so made (but not so as to reduce any rate specified in any of the said enactments below the figure at which it stood when this Act was passed).
(2)An order under subsection (1)(a) above, so far as it relates to interest for a period before 1st January 1972, may be made so as to apply only as respects deposits in accounts not closed before that date, or so as to make different provision for such deposits, and other deposits.
(3)In section 34(2) of the Trustee Savings Bank Act 1969 the words " and not exceeding £3 13s. Od. per cent, per annum " (limit on rate of interest payable by Fund for the Banks for Savings) shall cease to have effect.
(4)This section, and the repeal made by this Act in the said section 34(2), shall extend to the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.