Among the retirement saving schemes offered by the government, the Public Provident Fund (PPF) is a preferred option. There may be many reasons for such preference, such as the long investment term, compounding interest, affordability, and ease of access; not to forget the income tax benefits that come along at all the stages of investment, i.e. the EEE benefit.
While the benefits of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and Government Provident Fund (GPF) are available only for the working class, the PPF is open for anybody and everybody who wants to secure their retirement life.
As per the guidelines, a person can open only one PPF account in their name and one account in the name of their dependent children. However, the total contribution of a single person cannot exceed the upper limit of Rs.1.5 lakh per financial year.
On the other hand, the minimum contribution one must make to the account is Rs.500 per financial year to keep the account active and running. Also, the account holder can make the contributions at their convenience, i.e. in a lump sum and stretch it up to 12 transactions per financial year.
If you are making a cash transaction to deposit money to your PPF account, you can deposit up to Rs.50,000 per day if your PPF account is held with the Post Office. The same upper limit for cash transactions may not apply to other banks. However, online contributions to the PPF account do not have any such restrictions.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at apoorva.n@cleartax.in
