Home, personal and retail loans of Punjab National Bank could cost more from this month, with the country's second largest public sector lender deciding to hike its Benchmark Prime Landing Rate (BPLR) by 75 basis points to 13 per cent.

"The bank has announced the increase in its BPLR by issuing a circular as the board meeting has not taken place. We would take decision on increasing the home loan rates at the forthcoming Board meeting," PNB chief general manager U S Bhargava said.

The revised rates will come into effect from April 16.

Earlier, State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda had increased their prime lending rates to 12.75 and 13.25 per cent respectively. In the private sector, HDFC Bank has increased BPLR to 15 per cent, while ICICI Bank has raised the benchmark advance rate to 15.75 per cent.

The recent increase in lending rates followed the Reserve Bank's decision to increase short-term lending rate (repo) by a quarter percentage point to 7.75 per cent and cash reserve ratio, the deposits to be kept by all banks with RBI, by half a percentage point to 6.5 per cent, to check high credit growth and tame inflation.

Meanwhile, Syndicate Bank said on Wednesday that all customers of the bank, who have opted for floating interest rates, will have to pay more on their loans with the public sector bank today raising its benchmark interest rates by 75 basis points to 13 per cent.

This will also affect retail customers, a bank release said.