PPF or Public Provident Fund is Government backed Guaranteed Income scheme. It is the best secured long term investing option available. The amount invested in PPF can be claimed as deduction in the Income Tax returns and interest earned on this scheme is also tax free.

Key Features of PPF

• Account can be opened with just ₹500
• Minimum Investment of ₹500 is required to keep the account active
• Maximum of ₹1,50,000 can be invested in PPF account per year
• Minimum lock-in period is 15 years and can be extended with interval of 5 years later
• Partial withdrawal allowable after 7th financial year
• Loan facility is also available on PPF account with some limits
• Government decides guaranteed interest rate every quarter (i.e, 4 times a year)
• One of the best Tax saving Investment with guaranteed returns and to build retirement corpus

How to open PPF

PPF can be opened in Post Offices, Nationalized banks and in some private banks. You need to fill the PPF account form and along with it you need to attest photocopies of address proof, PAN card and passport size photos.

Nowadays banks are providing option of opening PPF account via online through Netbanking or Mobile banking application which is really a time saving and easy approach.

There are some other small saving Government investments too like Sukanya Samridhi Yojana for girl child, Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificate etc, we will discuss them separately in further posts.