PPF Calculator

The Public Provident Fund (PPF) is a long-term savings scheme backed by the Government of India, designed to encourage retirement and long-horizon saving. It's one of the most attractive low-risk options available because it offers a competitive, government-set interest rate, completely tax-free returns, and the safety of a sovereign guarantee.

A PPF account runs for a minimum of 15 years, which can then be extended in blocks of 5 years. You can invest between ₹500 and ₹1,50,000 per financial year, and interest — currently around 7.1%, revised by the government each quarter — is compounded annually. Because contributions are made each year and left to compound for the full term, the corpus grows substantially over 15 years. Investing the full ₹1.5 lakh a year at 7.1% builds a maturity value of roughly ₹40 lakh after 15 years, of which a large share is tax-free interest.

PPF's biggest draw is its tax treatment, often described as EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt): contributions qualify for a tax deduction, the interest earned is tax-free, and the maturity amount is tax-free too. Very few instruments offer all three. Combined with the government backing, this makes PPF a cornerstone of conservative, long-term portfolios in India.

The trade-off is liquidity. Your money is locked in for the long term — partial withdrawals are only allowed from the seventh year, and a premature closure is permitted only under specific conditions. That makes PPF unsuitable for money you might need soon, but ideal for disciplined retirement or children's-education saving where you want guaranteed, tax-free growth with zero market risk. Because the rate is reset quarterly, your actual return may differ slightly from a fixed assumption. Use this calculator to project your corpus and see how powerful 15 years of tax-free compounding can be.