PPF CALCULATOR — MATURITY | 7.1% RATE | YEAR-BY-YEAR GROWTH TABLE

Why PPF still matters in 2025-26

The Public Provident Fund is India's most quietly powerful savings scheme: a government-backed account paying 7.1% a year, compounded annually, where every rupee of interest and every rupee of maturity proceeds is tax-free. In a world where fixed-deposit interest is fully taxable and 7% pre-tax becomes about 4.9% post-tax for a 30%-bracket saver, PPF's 7.1% tax-free is effectively a 10%+ pre-tax equivalent — with sovereign guarantee on top. The price is patience: a 15-year lock-in with restricted withdrawals. For every salaried person filling the ₹1.5 lakh 80C basket anyway, PPF deserves first claim on it, because no competing 80C instrument combines this safety, return and tax treatment.

The rules that actually move your money

Contribution: ₹500 minimum, ₹1.5 lakh maximum per financial year; deposits beyond the cap earn no interest and sit idle. Timing: interest is computed on the lowest balance between the 5th and month-end, so an April deposit works a full twelve months while a March deposit works for days — the single largest controllable difference in outcomes. Compounding: interest is credited once a year on 31 March, and each year's credit starts earning its own interest — the engine behind the ₹40.68-lakh figure. Extension: after maturity, five-year blocks, with or without fresh contributions; the without-contribution mode even allows unlimited partial withdrawals once a year, turning the account into a tax-free parking corpus for retirees. Liquidity: loans in years 3-6, partial withdrawal (50% rule) from year 7, full closure only for medical, education or residency causes after year 5 with a 1% haircut.

What the year-by-year table teaches you

Look at any full-contribution run in the growth table and a pattern jumps out: in the early years the deposit dominates and interest is small; by year 8-10 the interest column overtakes the annual deposit; and in the final years the account earns more in a year than you put in from your salary. At 7.1% with ₹1.5-lakh deposits, year 15 alone adds about ₹2.5 lakh of interest — roughly 1.7 times your final deposit. This is compounding made visible, and it is the strongest argument for starting early rather than big: a person who runs one 15-year cycle from age 25 and stops ends ahead of someone who starts the identical cycle at 35, even if the late starter contributes the same amounts. The table also shows exactly why extensions are tempting — the post-maturity years have the largest opening balances, so every added year compounds the biggest number in the account's life.

PPF versus the alternatives — honest framing

Versus ELSS mutual funds: ELSS has a 3-year lock-in and historically higher equity returns (10-12% long-run), but with market risk and taxed gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year. PPF is fixed, sovereign, and fully tax-free. Aggressive investors split 80C: ELSS for growth, PPF for the guaranteed floor. Versus EPF: EPF is salary-linked and usually larger, but partly taxable on interest above ₹2.5 lakh of contributions in high-earning years; PPF is voluntary and always tax-free. Versus tax-saving FDs: a 5-year FD at ~7% has fully taxable interest — post-tax it rarely clears 5% for higher brackets; PPF wins decisively. Versus NPS: NPS targets higher retirement corpus with equity exposure but locks money until 60 and taxes 60% of the corpus at withdrawal. PPF's role is the risk-free, tax-free backbone — size it as your guaranteed floor, then take market risk above it.

Practical playbook — the habits that maximise PPF

Open it early even with ₹500 — the 15-year clock and the year-7 withdrawal rights start from the account, not the corpus. Set an April standing instruction in net-banking so the maximum contribution lands before 5 April every year, capturing the full year's interest automatically. Fill 80C with PPF first if you value certainty — then add ELSS or insurance with whatever basket remains. Use the minor-account route — parents can run a PPF for each child, multiplying the family's tax-free corpus (clubbing rules apply to interest on amounts above ₹1.5 lakh per child in some interpretations; confirm with your CA). At maturity, choose deliberately: the without-contribution extension is a legitimate retirement instrument — a ₹40-lakh balance earning 7.1% tax-free yields about ₹2.84 lakh a year without touching the principal. And when the annual bonus lands, our salary and income-tax calculators show exactly how much of it a maximised PPF saves you in tax.

Accuracy notes and privacy

This calculator compounds yearly at the rate you set (defaulting to the current 7.1%), models deposit timing exactly as the min-balance rule rewards it (start-of-year deposits earn the full year's interest; end-of-year deposits earn none for that year), and rounds only for display — the year-wise closing balances match what a bank's own schedule produces to within a rupee. It does not model intra-year multiple deposits (the min-balance rule makes the first-of-month timing matter there; monthly depositors should ideally deposit before the 5th of April once, or before the 5th of each month), rate changes mid-tenure, or loan/withdrawal paths. All computation runs in your browser — nothing is transmitted or stored. Treat the maturity figure as precise for the inputs given, and the passbook as the final word on actuals.