The Public Provident Fund (PPF) is a popular investment scheme among investors. It offers long-term savings benefits and tax advantages under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. With a PPF account, individuals can deposit amounts ranging from ₹500 to ₹1.5 lakh each year, with the account maturing after 15 years. However, to keep the account active, a minimum deposit must be made annually. Failure to do so results in the account becoming inactive.
If your PPF account has become inactive and you want to reactivate it, then know how to do it. Also if you invested in PPF for 5 years but could not continue further, will you get the benefit of interest on the deposit in the dormant account? Understand here.
Activate the inactive PPF account like this
Investors are given the facility to reactivate the inactive account of PPF. You can restart anytime before maturity. For this, the depositor has to go to the post office or bank, wherever the account is. A written application has to be submitted to restart the PPF account there. Also, for the number of years your payment has lapsed, you have to pay a minimum deposit of 500 rupees + 50 rupees as a default fee every year. Suppose your account has been closed for three years, then you have to pay a default fee of at least 1500 rupees and 150 rupees for three years. After this, your account will be continued again.
Do you get the benefit of interest on an inactive account?
Even if the PPF account is inactive, you keep getting interest on the amount deposited in it. However, there are many disadvantages of the account being inactive. Firstly, you are not able to reach the target with which you started investing in it. Secondly, you do not get the facility of loan/withdrawal on an inactive account.
Apart from this, the thing to keep in mind is that the lock-in period of a PPF account is 15 years. You can activate an inactive account only before 15 years, after that, you will not get this opportunity. But if your account is already active and you want to take advantage of the scheme further, then in such a situation, investors get the facility to extend the PPF account in blocks of 5-5 years.