PPF account – Do you have it?

Pub­lic Prov­i­dent Fund (PPF) is a statu­tory scheme by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment of India. It is one of the instru­ments suit­able for long term invest­ment. PPF scheme is for a period of 15 years. The min­i­mum invest­ment required in a PPF account is Rs 500 per year and the max­i­mum invest­ment amount is Rs 70,000 per year. You can take a loan on the PPF account after com­ple­tion of the third year open­ing of the account. Par­tial with­drawal is also applic­a­ble after 4 year’s com­ple­tion of account opening.

Who can open a PPF account?

Any indi­vid­ual who is a native of India can open a PPF account. If you are salaried, busi­ness per­son you can open a PPF account. Open­ing of PPF account is vol­un­tary and not manda­tory.
If you are a salaried per­son, you should have PF account, but for busi­ness per­son they do not have a PF account. Ide­ally every busi­ness per­son or self employed indi­vid­ual should have a PPF account. A salaried per­son can also open a PPF account apart from the exist­ing PF account from a long term invest­ment perspective.

Invest­ment in Post Office sav­ings

How can you open a PPF account?

Any indi­vid­ual can open a PPF account in any nation­al­ized bank or its branches that han­dle PPF accounts. Visit your near­est SBI branch and open a PPF account. Even PPF account can be opened at the head post office or cer­tain select post offices.

PPF — Return on investment

PPF inter­est rate is 8% per annum.

PPF — Tax impact

Amount invested in a PPF account qual­i­fies under Sec­tion 80C of the income tax act. PPF also falls under the EEE cat­e­gory and on matu­rity, you pay absolutely no tax.

Related posts:

1. Open­ing a NRI bank account
2. NRI Bank Account
3. Open a demat account
4. How to open a PPF account
5. Open a SBI NRI Account Online