Saving calculator
PPF Calculator
Fifteen years is a long lock-in. In exchange, PPF is sovereign-backed and untaxed at every stage — contribution, accrual and withdrawal. This models the account year by year.
Your numbers
Between ₹500 and ₹1,50,000 per financial year.
Set by the government each quarter. Currently 7.1%.
Balance after 15 years
Tax-free at maturity₹40,68,209
Contributions of ₹22,50,000 earn ₹18,18,209 in interest. Nothing is taxed on the way in, along the way, or on the way out.
- Total invested
- ₹22,50,000
- Interest earned
- ₹18,18,209
- Interest share
- 45%
Fifteen years of patience
The account is deliberately illiquid. That is the trade for a tax-free, sovereign-backed return.
- Your contributions
- Interest earned
You are at the statutory ceiling of ₹1,50,000 a year. Anything beyond this has to go somewhere else — the deduction under section 80C is capped at the same figure, and only applies under the old tax regime.
Year by year
Opening balance, deposit, interest credited on 31 March, and closing balance.
| Year | Deposit | Interest | Closing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹10,650 | ₹1,60,650 |
| Year 2 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹22,056 | ₹3,32,706 |
| Year 3 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹34,272 | ₹5,16,978 |
| Year 4 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹47,355 | ₹7,14,334 |
| Year 5 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹61,368 | ₹9,25,701 |
| Year 6 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹76,375 | ₹11,52,076 |
| Year 7 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹92,447 | ₹13,94,524 |
| Year 8 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹1,09,661 | ₹16,54,185 |
The arithmetic
How this calculator works
No proprietary model, no adjustment factor we will not name. This is the standard formula, applied exactly as written.
For each financial year:
interest = (opening balance + contribution) × r
closing = opening balance + contribution + interest
Interest is compounded annually and credited on 31 March.- r
- Annual rate set by the government, currently 7.1%
- opening
- Balance carried in from the previous year
- contribution
- Deposit for the year — ₹500 to ₹1,50,000
- closing
- Balance carried into the next year
- This projection assumes the year's contribution arrives before the 5th of April, so it earns interest for the full year. The rule that actually applies is that interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the 5th and the last day of each month — depositing on 30 March instead of 5 April costs you nearly a full year of interest on that contribution.
- The rate is reviewed quarterly. A single rate is held constant here; over fifteen years it will move.
Worked example
The same maths, on real numbers
The full ₹1,50,000 contributed at the start of every year for the standard fifteen-year term, at 7.1%.
| Yearly contribution | ₹1,50,000 |
|---|---|
| Rate | 7.1% p.a. |
| Tenure | 15 years |
| Total invested | ₹22,50,000 |
| Interest earned | ₹18,18,209 |
| Maturity value | ₹40,68,209 |
Interest is 45% of the maturity value, and every rupee of it is tax-free — a 7.1% tax-free return is equivalent to roughly 10.1% before tax for someone in the 30% bracket, which is a genuinely competitive number for a sovereign-guaranteed instrument. Extend the account by one five-year block and the balance passes ₹66 lakh, because the largest interest credits come in the years when the balance is biggest.
What this calculator assumes
- The contribution is made at the start of each financial year, so it earns a full year of interest.
- The interest rate stays constant across the whole term.
- No partial withdrawals or loans are taken against the balance.
- The account is not discontinued at any point.
What it deliberately leaves out
- The government revises the rate every quarter. Over fifteen years the actual sequence will differ from any single assumed rate.
- Partial withdrawals, permitted from the seventh year, and loans between years three and six are not modelled.
- Extensions are modelled as continuing contributions. You may also extend without contributing, in which case the balance simply keeps earning interest.
Questions about the ppf calculation
Before the 5th of April, in one instalment, if you can. Interest is computed on the lowest balance between the 5th and the end of each month, so a deposit made on the 6th earns nothing for that month. Over fifteen years, the difference between contributing in early April and late March is well over a lakh on a full contribution.
Yes, in blocks of five years, with or without further contributions. Either choice keeps the tax-free status. Since the largest interest credits arrive when the balance is at its largest, extending is often the single highest-value decision available to a PPF holder.
The 80C deduction is not available under the new regime, so PPF loses one of its three tax advantages. The other two — tax-free accrual and tax-free withdrawal — remain, and a sovereign-backed 7.1% with no tax on the interest is still hard to match. It is a weaker case than before, not a closed one.
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