PPF Account: 5 latest amendment every PPF account-holder should know
by Sonali Marwah
April 7, 2020
148
The world is fighting against pandemic Coronavirus. India is also taking many preventive measures to minimize the loss of life from this pandemic. The Indian government has announced a lockdown for 21 days at the end of the financial year, and due to this, many taxpayers were not able to execute their tax planning. Considering all these steps, the government of India has made certain amendments to the Public Provident Fund (PPF) and other saving schemes.
Now, we will learn about those five significant changes in PPF. These are as under:
- There is a decrease of 80 basis points in the bank interest rate starting from April 2020. Public Provident Fund still offers a 7.1% rate of interest. For long term savings, PPF is always a better option than fixed deposits in banks. Today the highest rate of interest is offered by State Bank of India on fixed deposits i.e., 5.7%
- Due to the lockdown of 21 days, the government has given an extension for making payments on various tax savings options. The government has increased the extension from 31st March 2020 to 30th June 2020.
- There will be no levy of fines if you fail to make payment for your PPF account. PPF holders can make the payments till 30th June 2020 to avoid penalties.
- The payments made regarding the PPF account till 30th June will be taken into consideration for reckoning interest.
- Now, the PPF account holder can make deposits as many times, but payment should be in multiples of the ’50s with a maximum amount of 1.5 lakhs.