Public Provident Fund : A summarized view

Public provident fund (PPF) is one of the best tax saving investment option under section 80C in the point of view safety. However, it does not guarantee to build a great wealth but it offer a great sense of safety with capital appreciation. Many of investors often confused between EPF(Employee Provident Fund) and PPF. Today, we will understand about PPF investment. The main feature of PPF as given below:

• ·         Only Indian citizen can open PPF account. No NRI and foreigners are allowed to open this account. If anyone get NRI status after opening the PPF account then he/she can be continue with it. 

• ·         It can be opened in the name of single name. Joint names are not allowed. Parent can open this account in the name of minor but the total tax exempt limit would be Rs 1 lakh only including parent’s investment.
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•  ·         The minimum amount needed Rs 500 every year to maintain it. The investor can deposit maximum 12 times in a financial year.

• ·         The return is flexible but sure and it decided by RBI every year. For 2013-14 the rate of return is 8.7% per annum. It is the safest investment backed by government of India. It cannot be attached under any court order for debt recovery.

• ·         You get tax benefit under section 80C on invested amount subject to upper limit Rs 1 lakh. The return is also tax free.
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• ·         It has 15 year lock-in period. After completion of 15 year one can extend it by 5 year block period. It allowed partial withdrawal facility after completion of 5 year after opening the account. The loan facility is also available in PPF.

• ·         The PPF account can be opened in post office, SBI branches. Now some private banks like ICICI bank are also offering such services. If you move your residence from one place to another, in that case you can easily shift it to nearest bank or post office.
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It is great tool to accumulate wealth in long term with higher degree of safety. For more detail and any other query related investment, you can contact me through my email.

Warm regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

www.artofinvest.com

www.arvindtrivedicfp.blogspot.in

Public Provident Fund : The best Tax Saving option in debt category

PPF: The Best option in Debt segment

First of all, Happy Makar Sankrant to all of my readers. As you know tax planning season already begun and the investor are busy to find the best tax saving instrument. When we talk about investment, it can be divided in two broad category: 1. Equity segment 2. Debt segment. Both categories have their own different characteristics. PPF (Public Provident Fund) is the best option available in the debt segment. Here we are going to discuss in details about this category:

Public Provident Fund (PPF) :

All Indian residents are eligible for PPF scheme. NRI are not eligible for this scheme. It can be opened with the name of minor by the legal guardian. However, each person allowed have only one PPF account. If person become NRI after opening the PPF, in that case subscription would be continue till maturity.

A minimum yearly deposit of Rs 500 needed to open and maintain the account. You cannot deposit more than 12 times in a financial year but you can invest more than 1 times in a particular month. If you deposit before 5th of any month then only you will get the interest for that month. The maximum limit of deposit is Rs 1 lakh in a particular financial year. Online NEFT transfer facility is also available in these days in many banks.

The govt of India decide every year the return rate of the PPF. The rate of interest for current FY year 2013-14 is 8.7%. The minimum tenure of the PPF investment is 15 years. You can extend it in 5 years with or without contribution after 15 year. You can also withdraw up to 60% amount at the time of completion of 15 years.

Loan and withdrawal facility are also available in PPF account also. The rate of interest charged on loan 2% more than the prevailing on interest rate on PPF after 1st December, 2011.  If you have taken loan before 1st Dec 2011 then you have to pay interest on loan only 1% more than prevailing PPF rate. Pre mature withdrawal allowed from the end of the sixth financial year from when the PPF commenced. The maximum amount can be withdraw is equal to 50% of the amount in the account at the end of the 4th year preceding the year in which the amount is withdrawal or the end of the preceding year whichever is lower.

If PPF account holder does not deposit Rs 500 during entire financial year, the PPF account would be deactivated. To activate the account you have to pay Rs 50 penalty and minimum Rs 500 for each inactive year. Nominee facility is also available and you can appoint more than 1 nominee and can allocate the particular percentage to each nominee.

Annual contribution qualify for tax exemption under section 80C with maximum limit of Rs 1 Lakh including all instruments available under this section. The interest earned on contribution and withdrawal are also exempt from tax. It is the safest option for conservative investors who do not want take risk. For your information we are providing the interest rate offer by the PPF over the time:

• 01/04/1986  to 14/01/2000    :   12%
• 15/01/2000  to  28/02/2001   :   11%
• 01/03/2001  to  28/02/2002   :   10.5 % 
• 01/03/2002  to  28/02/2003   :   9% 
• 01/03/2003  to  30/11/2011   :   8%
• 01/12/2011  to  31/03/2012   :   8.6%
• 01/04/2012  to  31/03/2013   :   8.8%
• 01/04/2013  to   onwards        :   8.7%

Once again my best wish to all of you for good financial health and physical health on the eve of Makar Sankranti. For more detail and any other query related investment, you can contact me through my email.

Warm regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

Retirement Planning - Its Importance

Have you prepared your retirement plan ?

We all work hard entire life for our daily needs and responsibilities. Our daily essential expenses has become costly day by day and the common man are in trouble to match the income for their current daily life expenses. During this daily life income generation struggle, somehow we are ignoring our after retirement plan. All of us expect a stress free retirement life and for that we need a suitable corpus. This corpus is nothing but replacement of your income when you stop working after retirement. The importance of building retirement corpus you can imagine that even today we are earning and hardly fulfil our needs and when we will stop earning then how can we expect stress free life. Migration of children, weakening joint family system, increased life expectancy, increasing medical bill, increased cost of living are the main factors which forced us to think about retirement planning in very serious.

One more crucial factor is inflation we should consider at the time of making retirement plan. It makes life worse more for retired person. For example if average inflation rate for next 25 year is 8% and our monthly expenses is Rs 15,000. So we need around Rs 1,00,000 per month with the effect of inflation.

Most of young people, at the beginning of their career completely ignore thinking about retirement plan. But please note down retirement is reality for every working person and for comfortable life style after retirement should make planning at the very beginning of the career. In most cases we have roughly 30 years for building the retirement corpus. As age of around 25 the person get job and around 55 take retirement. It means we should invest for some part of our saving for comfortable retired life during our working years.

So now it has become clear that how important to plan for after retirement life. If you find it is difficult to make retirement corpus then contact any independent financial advisor ( IFA).There are many ways to build retirement corpus like SIP in equity mutual fund, regular investment in government sponsored NPS (New Pension Scheme), PPF (Public Provident Fund), Provident Fund for employee, Annuity Schemes etc. We will discuss about these options in upcoming blog.

If you have any query regarding investment please feel free to ask.

Regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

Important points You should know about your PPF Account

PPF (Public Provident Fund) Account is very suitable option for those investors who want tax free return and safe investment option. Some points should be keep in mind when you open PPF account. Often a lot of queries come to me about PPF. So here I am sharing some points about PPF .

Opening a PPF Account :

Any Indian citizen can open PPF account except NRI. You can open PPF account in any nearest State Bank of India branch, or a branch of any of State Bank’s subsidiaries. You can also open an account in select nationalized banks, and the post office or selected ICICI Bank branches also. The required formalities are Fill  the form, attach a photograph, give your PAN Number. After opening PPF account you will also receive a pass book for recording all your PPF transactions.

At any point in your life, you are allowed to have only one PPF account in your name. You can also have an account in the name of a minor child of whom you are the parent / guardian. However that will be the child’s account, you will simply be the guardian. You can never have a joint account. If at any time it is seen that you have more than one account in your own name, the second account will be deactivated, and only your principal amount will be returned to you.

Loan Facility

You can avail a loan from your PPF fund in case of need. The first loan can be taken in the third year of opening the account. For example if the account is opened during the year 2009-10, the first loan can be taken during the year 2011-2012. The loan amount will be restricted to 25% of the balance including interest for the year 2009-08 in the account as on 31/3/2010. The loan must be repaid in a maximum of 36 EMIs. After settling first loan you can also avail second loan.

Withdrawal Facility

You can make one withdrawal per year starting from your seventh year. The first withdrawal can be done after the expiry of 5 full financial years from the end of the year in which your initial subscription was made. This means that from the day you open your account, you will need to complete 6 full financial years before you can make any withdrawal. Thereafter, you can make one withdrawal per year.

The amount of withdrawal will be limited to 50% of the balance at credit at the end of the fourth year immediately preceding the year in which the amount is to be withdrawn, or the balance at the end of the preceding year, whichever is lower. For example: if you opened your PPF account on April 1st, 2006, you can make your first withdrawal after April 1st 2012, and the amount of withdrawal will be limited to 50% of the balance as 31st March, 2008, or the balance on 31st March 2012, whichever is lower.

Options at the time of maturity

There are three options available at the time of after 15 year maturity period.
Either you can withdraw your maturity amount, or you can extend your account by a 5 year block, as many times as you want and make fresh contributions, or you can extend the account without making any further contributions, and continue to earn 8% interest on it every year. The maturity amount is exempt from tax.
.If you choose to extend your account and continue making fresh contributions, you can extend it for a block of 5 years at a time, as many times as you want, you can also make withdrawals from the account, up to 60% of the account balance that was there at the beginning of the extended period. Just remember, if you choose to extend your account, submit the necessary documentation for extension before one year passes from the maturity date.

If you choose to extend your account without making any fresh contributions, you can do so. In this case, any amount can be withdrawn without any restrictions, you can only withdraw once per year. The balance will continue to earn interest till it is withdrawn.

If you have any other query about PPF and investment related feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com