The central government on June 20, 2016 said that the public provident fund (PPF) subscribers could close their deposit accounts after 5 years for meeting medical expenses & paying fees for higher education.
"A subscriber shall be allowed to prematurely close his/her account, or / the account of a minor of whom he/she is the guardian, on the ground that the amount is required for the treatment of serious ailments or / life-threatening diseases to the account holder, spouse or / dependent children.
“The account closure will be allowed upon the production of supporting documents from a competent medical authority," the finance ministry said in a notification.
It further said that the account closure will also be allowed in cases where the amount is required to fund the higher education of the account holder, or / the minor account holder, upon the production of documents and fee bills of admission at a recognised institution in India or abroad.
The notification, however, added that premature closure of accounts could happen only after 5 (five) financial years.
In a separate development, the government decided to keep interest rates for small savings schemes unchanged for the July-September quarter of 2016-17.
Accordingly, the interest rate on one-year savings deposits for the second quarter has been kept at 7.1%.
The interest rate on 2 year, 3 year and 5 year savings deposits have been kept at 7.2%, 7.4% and 7.9%, respectively.
The interest rates for small savings schemes are now notified on quarterly basis.
The government had last February (2016) announced that small savings rate will be set quarterly to align them with market rate of government securities.
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