Many investment schemes require a minimum amount to be invested in each financial year to keep them active.
If you are investing in PPF, SSY or NPS to meet your long-term goals, you need to make sure about the status of your accounts before the current financial year ends on March 31. Many investment schemes require a minimum contribution per financial year to keep them active. Failing to put in minimum deposit in them will make them inactive and you will have to reactivate them by paying unpaid deposits and a penalty. Therefore, make sure you have invested at least the minimum amount in them to keep them in active state.
Minimum amount to keep a PPF account active
The minimum amount to invest in each financial year in a PPF account is Rs 500. You can check the PPF passbook to find out the contributions made during the FY 2021-22. If you have not deposited any amount in the PPF account, make a payment of at least Rs 500. If you have an online PPF account, the contribution can be made online but for a PPF account held at the post office, you need to make a visit to the branch to deposit the amount. Make sure your cheque gets cleared within the FY and the amount gets credited to the PPF account before March 31.
If you have a separate account in the name of a minor, make sure to deposit the minimum amount in that account also. The maximum amount, in self and the minor account, taken together cannot exceed Rs 1.5 lakh in a financial year.
The PPF contributions get tax benefit under Section 80C and the interest earned is tax-free. Presently, the PPF interest rate is 7.1 per cent per annum, compounded annually and is paid on maturity after 15 years.
Minimum amount to keep SSY account active
The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) account can be opened with a minimum deposit of Rs 250 and each financial year, a minimum of Rs 250 needs to be deposited. A maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh can be deposited in each financial year. Currently, the interest rate of Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana scheme is 7.6 per cent per annum, compounded annually and paid on maturity. The investment in SSY gets tax benefit under Section 80C and the interest earned is tax free. You can check your updated SSY passbook to find out if any deposit has been made in the financial year.
Minimum amount to keep NPS account active
In NPS, the minimum number of contributions in a Financial Year has to be one and the minimum amount per contribution in a Tier I account is required to be Rs. 500. However, to keep the NPS account active, a subscriber is required to make a minimum contribution of Rs. 1,000 per Financial Year. Failing to deposit a minimum amount on NPS, will make the account dormant and you will have to unfreeze the account. In Tier II, the minimum amount per contribution is fixed at Rs. 250.
The Statement of Transaction (SOT) for your NPS account will carry all the details of payments made by you during the financial year. You can download it online to check if the minimum amount has been deposited or not.
Going forward, it is always better to deposit money in PPF, SSY or NPS accounts at the start of the financial year, i.e. in the month of April.
