The government has relaxed deadlines for subscribers of small savings instruments such as public provident fund (PPF) and Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) by three months, amid the Covid-19 lockdown, a finance ministry spokesperson said.
The subscribers can now deposit their savings for the previous financial year (2019-20) up to June 30, 2020, if they have missed the March 31 deadline because of the lockdown in the country, he said.
“The revival fee and penalty charges are waived of on the PPF and SSA accounts in which mandatory minimum deposit in not made up to March 31, 2020, subject to such deposit are made up to June 30, 2020,” he added.
All those PPF subscribers, whose accounts matured on March 31, 2020 (including one year window for extension), can now be extended up to June 30, 2020, he said.
Subscribers need to make some specified deposit in a year to keep these accounts active, otherwise they have to pay a penalty. They usually make a payment towards the end of fiscal as these schemes are part of 80C of the Income Tax Act.
The account holders can make a single deposit towards the accounts opened in their own name or in that of minors for 2019-20 till June subject to maximum deposit ceiling prescribed by law, an office memorandum issued by the ministry said.
The subscriber will have to give an undertaking to the account office that the maximum deposit ceiling applicable to PPF and SSA opened has not breached the deposit ceiling for 2019-20.
It, however, said interest will be applicable from the actual date of deposits.
The memorandum said that the revival fee or penalty charges have been waived on the PPF and SSA accounts in which the mandatory minimum deposit wasn’t done on March 31 given that such deposits are made up to June 30.
